All that glitters is not gold
by Eternity Curse
Summary: At his 19th birthday, Alexander is required to find a proper eromenos. He then meets Hephaestion, a man he finds suitable for the part. After the prince almost gets them both killed, a love-hate relationship develops, soon to become something more.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Alexander belongs to Hephaestion, Hephaestion belongs to Alexander. Glad I was able to clear that up.

Author's note: I apologise for the historical misconceptions, it's the only way the story could actually work.

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_"All that is gold does not glitter,  
Not all those who wander are lost;  
The old that is strong does not wither,  
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.  
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,  
A light from the shadows shall spring;  
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,  
The crownless again shall be king."_

Poem by J. R. R. Tolkien

**All that glitters is not gold - Chapter 1**

Alexander opened his eyes, regretting his action no more than three seconds later. He sat up, supporting his aching head with his left hand, as he did his best to study to room he was currently in. The prince sighed in relief, determining that he was sleeping in his own room, especially since last week he had woken up halfway across town, next to a woman almost twice his age. Speaking of which, he looked at the other end of the bed where a lean body lay, breathing slowly, black curls sliding across her back and golden earrings shining in the morning sun. From that last aspect, he could tell she was at least a fairly wealthy woman… or the wife of someone fairly wealthy.

His brain tried to piece the information together: he lay in his own room with a rich woman around his age, even thought he wasn't exactly sure about who she was or what was her matrimonial status. Well, three out of five wasn't so bad.

Alexander rose from his bed, careful not to wake her. He flinched slightly as his body pained him in ways that could only mean revenge from the poor treatment it received the night before. Yesterday was Alexander's 19th birthday. There had been a lot of festivities, a lot of drinking, a fare share of dancing, talking and… well, and that was pretty much everything he could recall from last night. He didn't try very hard to remember since the woman by his side was enough to determine that last night was a successful night. All he needed to do now was to sneak his way out of the room in time for his morning meal.

Alexander got dressed quickly, hurrying himself out of the room afterwards. On the other side, as he closed the door without a sound, a familiar pair of eyes observed him.

"Joy to you, Alexander!" The prince leaped slightly at the unexpected loud greeting.

Philotas grinned, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Alexander turned and greeted him, easily hiding his embarrassment due to years of practice.

"Your father send me to call for you. I suspect he wishes to discuss a matter of great importance."

Alexander cringed imperceptibly, knowing that his father only wished to 'discuss matters of great importance' when said matters involved something he would have to do against his will.

He didn't have time to express his discontent when the door behind him was thrown open, reveling a very anxious woman who fled down the hall the moment they faced each other.

Philotas squinted, trying to determine who was the young lady.

"Was that Ismene?" Alexander was distracted, praying that no one would find her before she reached… well, wherever she lived. He had enough trouble to deal with, he did not need his mother lecturing him about how anyone found on his father's banquets were austerely whores.

"Who?" He asked, as soon as the question reached his troubled brain.

"Ismene." The other man repeated. "You know, your lover?"

"Oh, it wasn't." He paused. "That Ismene. I need to leave her." He said, making a mental note to do so as soon as he was able to flee the meeting he was to have with his father.

Philotas laughed. "It has only been a week, Alexander. She still has that 'Oh by the gods, I'm allowed to touch THE Prince Alexander' look."

Alexander laughed heartedly. "You give me too much credit, my friend." He paused, mumbling afterwards. "They all expect me to give them so much more than I can possibly deliver."

"You will need a queen."

"I certainly will not choose a queen who surrenders her body so easily."

"The body does not matter, choose someone that you love." He pointed out, kindheartedly, repeating something Ptolemy once said to him. "After all, love is what supports strong kings." Or something.

"Are you calling my father weak?" He asked in mocked indignation, making Philotas smile. "That man is incapable of loving anyone but himself." He added, frowning.

"He is your father, Alexander. He does love you."

"There was a time when I would have spoken those words myself. Now, I am not so certain."

"Your father is capable of loving. One must assume that if there is a soul to match ours for everyone, he must have one too." Alexander laughed bitterly.

"Love, if not between families or in form of friendship, is a mere children's tale." Philotas felt bad for hearing such heartbreaking words from his friend who always seemed to maintain faith and optimism in all issues but this one.

"What about lovers?" The noble asked, expectantly.

"Lovers are bound by lust, nothing more." Alexander put it simply, "A soul to match our own is ludicrous." His friend, however, seemed to be unmoved by this words, sighing happily.

"Wouldn't it be pleasant if it were true?" The prince stared in confusion at the other's contentment.

"I will not occupy my mind with foolish dreams that can only culminate in disappointment."

"I thought you wouldn't. After all, you are Alexander." Hearing those words had the expected effect on Alexander, making his mood improve significantly.

---

Philip awaited him on the throne room, sipping his whine as he looked out the window, watching his empire to pass the time. He wondered how much he could make it grow before he passed away; he wondered how would it manage without him.

Would his son be strong enough? Would he grow up to be just like his father?

He frowned, realizing all this would be unlikely. Alexander was definably strong and intelligent as himself, but he was Olympias' son. That dreadful woman got this emotional crap buried so deep inside his skull that it would be unlikely to fade away with time. He should have had her executed when he had the chance.

Philip heard steps approaching him. Sighing, he prepared himself to the conversation that would follow, repeating in his mind that the boy deserved his support as a father and, right now, that support meant forcing him to have an eromenos. A good eromenos would earn him the respect he needed from the court as a prince. Respect that was lost from birth due to that barbarian mother of his and slightly recovered every time he would prove his worth by taming a stallion, having incredibly complex political conversations with the court or even commanding an army in an exemplary manner.

So he had all this working on his favor, even though he got himself exiled not long ago. What he needed was a little push.

Alexander reached his side, smiling vaguely.

"Joy to you, father. You called for me?"

"Yes, we have very serious matters to discuss." He motioned for him to approach, pausing until Alexander looked him in the eye. "Now that you turned 19 you are expected to find a suitable eromenos." Philip always started by pointing out the purpose of the meeting as soon as the person involved arrived. This conversation was no different, for his son had lost the right to feel special the moment he stood against the king's will.

Alexander anticipated another demand. None came, so he spoke, "I had several eromenos already, father. I don't see where-"

"Suitable. That means noble blood, boy." His father interrupted, impatience growing on his voice. "Someone who the court will applaud you for overpowering."

Alexander, bright as he was, still failed to see the problem in this whole conversation. His sexual aptitude was terrific, even though he never felt that the act itself was essential for a good life. To put it simply, it was not the actual pleasure it brought as much as an entertainment. He could easily be as amused by a horse ride as he was with sex. "I suppose that won't be difficult."

"If you choose someone with the caliber that I'm expecting, it won't be that simple." The king paused, sitting on the throne. Alexander looked for a chair himself, knowing this would be one of those lasting metaphors his father liked to throw into conversations, to better prove his point.

"Rocks surround us, boy. People with no great value in any way, be it beauty, strength or power. You've tasted only silver, selecting pleasing boys around your age during banquets or other royal occasions." Alexander considered this a compliment. He had terrific taste in lovers, be it male or female. He preferred females so, when he did happen to choose a male, it had to be one of extraordinary beauty and talent.

"I don't want you to choose silver, let alone rocks. What I want you to choose is gold." He stated, apparently proud of his well-applied metaphor.

"Gold." Alexander repeated, seemingly not convinced.

"Yes, gold." Philip replied, irritated. "And hurry on your choice, I'm not very patient man." He paused, hissing. "Do not disappoint me." Alexander waited patiently for the intimidation he knew was coming. "If you do, there will be harsh consequences." And there it was, the futile threat that Philip managed to fit into every last one of their conversations.

---

"My father wants me to find gold as soon as possible." Alexander spoke angrily, reunited in his chambers with all his closest friends except Perdiccas, who recently had been awarded more tasks within the army and was still trying to cope with it all.

"Is that some kind of metaphor or-?" Leonnatus asked, the confusion being shared by all of them.

"He wants me to find the most beautiful, talented, strong male that there is around, and he wants me to become his erastes."

"That's all? We thought it would be something difficult." Cassander spoke, leaning back on his chair.

"Alexander, you're a prince. The 'gold' might have all those attributes but it will still be attracted to power." Ptolemy spoke in an all-knowing voice.

"Your father didn't state anything about the man's personality, did he?" Philotas questioned.

"Probably forgot some people have one." Nearchus mumbled, making Leonnatus stifle a laugh.

"The conquest does not trouble me half as much as the finding." Alexander spoke, pacing around the room. "How does he expect me to find perfect eromenos? How am I supposed to know which one's gold? Young, old, short, tall, experienced or-"

"If he's asking you anything else than to choose a horse, I think you're doing it wrong." A jovial voice interrupted.

"Cleitus." Alexander acknowledged the other's presence, as said soldier made his way towards him. He nodded, turning his attention to the other men present in the room.

"What are you lads doing?"

"The king has required Alexander to choose an eromenos as soon as possible." Ptolemy explained.

"Alexander has asked for our assistance in this matter since he doesn't know what the king considers perfect…or gold." Leonnatus added.

"And that is because of your..." The older man searched for a word that fit exactly the kind of mocking he was planning on doing. "experience on the field?" The future generals threw him a dirty look that only made Cleitus' grin grew wider. "Can I be of any assistance?"

Alexander pondered Cleitus' help. The man was older than any of them and he had seen him with enough good-looking, wealthy boys to know that he must have some kind of knowledge on this area. Then again, he was interested in anything with a pulse, so he was, if anything, an unreliable source.

"We have enough familiarity with the subject to aid the prince, Cleitus." Cassander spoke, frowning at the man.

"Oh, I don't doubt it. I did attend all those spectacularly successful attempts you all performed on the very same young man, which is more that sufficient knowledge to be able to point out your expertise on the issue at hand."

"What is he talking about?" Alexander questioned, his curiosity emerging.

"Haven't you mentioned to your beloved prince the deeds you've been performing on your free time?" He tutted while shocking his head, acting as a disappointed mother scolding her children. "That is not very nice of you, now is it?"

"Is there something you wish to tell me?" The prince spoke in a harsh tone, upset that his friends had been acting behind his back.

"As a matter of fact there is this… boy." Philotas quickly spoke as soon as he noticed Alexander's pained expression.

"He fits better into the young man category." Cleitus added, softly.

"Fine. He is a young man, a soldier from your army." Cleitus raised an eyebrow, but didn't bother to correct the youngling about the fact that the army was actually Philip's. He knew how much they loved to treat Alexander as a king and dismiss any proof of Philip's existence.

"And what is so exceptional about that soldier?" Alexander provided the question, as it seemed his friends were having some trouble on giving him the information he asked for. The young men shifted from side to side, feeling uneasy.

Cleitus rolled his eyes and then stated, "He's your golden boy."

"Care to elaborate?" Alexander asked, all his attention focused on Cleitus, who proudly gave away the knowledge the other man so desperately seeked.

"He's a soldier, a pretty good one at that. Your father deeply believes he has what it takes to become a great general, one day."

"That's it, all this commotion over a respectable soldier?"

"You didn't let me finish." Cleitus added a short silence as part of his story telling talent he so proudly flaunted every time the army found themselves sitting around a fire. In fairness, he was indeed a very talented storyteller as his narratives often left part of the men of one of the strongest armies on earth cowering in fear on their tents, as they silently prayed for morning to arrive.

He walked over to the prince, resting his hand on the young man's shoulder. Smirking slightly, he whispered. "He is said to have reincarnated the beauty of Adonis himself."

That was all it took for Alexander to acquire curious smile to complement a sudden, and remarkable, interest on the young man.

Alexander felt truly excited to meet this man, so much that he wanted to see him in that exact moment.

"Do you think he would be training right now?" He asked, remembering he was a soldier.

"It's unlikely. He might be helping his uncle, though." Philotas spoke, followed by Cleitus' explanation.

"He sells horses, Hephaestion helps him on his free time. He's probably at the market." No one even needed to ask how he knew this: Cleitus liked horses and pretty boys. The combination wouldn't pass unnoticed.

"Hephaestion..." Alexander repeated, so interested in the man's name he barely wondered for how long were his companions chasing him to know so much about his life. "Come, you'll introduce me to him." He began walking but stopped as soon as he notice that no one was actually intending to follow him. "Is there something troubling you?"

"Well, we might have forgotten to mention an insignificant aspect about Hephaestion." Philotas mumbled, looking anywhere but at the prince.

"And what might that be?" Alexander asked, keeping his anger in a tight leash.

"He is very…" He searched for the appropriate word, one that would expose the truth in a very soft and controlled fashion. "Very unpredictable, I suppose."

"I'll be cautious." He turned to walk away.

"Alexander, wait!" Philotas called out. "He is also…" Alexander turned back again, his patience gradually wearing off.

"Oh, by the gods." Cassander spoke, throwing his arms in the air. "The man is a combination of all evil that ever walked on this earth." Alexander raised an eyebrow at that concept, considering this information very faulty. He was sure that post had already been filled by his own parents.

"He denies everyone that tries to approach him." And by deny, Nearchus actually meant 'humiliate in the most dreadful kind of ways to express how he never, ever would touch such insignificant creatures such as themselves'.

"Some even consider him a work of Hades! Beauty, power and intelligence combined into one." Leonnatus added. Alexander thought about those three as a great combination, his friends had other views. "It can only be a work of Aphrodite to tempt us out of our ways of glory! In order for us to prove ourselves worthy of a greater empire, we must deny the pleasures of the devil."

Alexander frowned, wondering how he missed the moment when his friends became so utterly superstitious. Turning to the only man who he thought could distance himself of tales and rumors, he spoke.

"What do you know of this, Ptolemy?" Ptolemy shrugged.

"There is not much I can tell you. Once a man is literally declared the devil, the gossip really gets going." Then, Ptolemy proceeded to tell him about all the preposterous stories he had heard about Hephaestion.

By the end, all the companions where wondering why on earth would someone on their right mind go chase Hephaestion after hearing all that, but then they remembered that this was Alexander they were talking about. Pain and death were things that happened to other people. With that said, he waved the stories away as lies.

"Do not worry yourselves, my friends. I'm used to dealing with difficult people." Alexander paused, adding with a smile, "Besides, it's not his personality I'm interested in."

"Think about it, Alexander. The man is beautiful and yet, remains untouched." Nearchus warned.

"I would say that is most likely caused by your incompetence in these matters rather than his troubling personality." The prince spoke, the unkind touch was added due to his patience wearing short.

His friends frowned at the response, eventually deciding to just let him burn. It would do wonders for his ego, by crushing every last bit of it. Moreover, Alexander was a prince, so it was highly unlikely that the other would try to humiliate him. At the very least, he wouldn't slaughter him.

"Are you coming or you'll just stay here, brooding?" Alexander asked, crossing his arms.

"Are you going to talk to him? Oh, please, don't." Philotas almost begged, making the prince breath out, exasperated.

"I will simply ignore any further comments about the man before I meet him." He left, swiftly closing the door behind him. Cleitus laughed at the other's expressions.

"That boy has the survival instincts of a lemming." Ptolemy mumbled, ignoring the officer.

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Thank you for reading! Reviews will be very much appreciated (:


	2. Chapter 2

Alexander made his way to the market by horse, closely followed by his unenthusiastic friends. Cleitus, however, stayed on the palace, saying he had some matters to attend to and adding that he would very much appreciate a detailed explanation afterwards.

His friends, especially Cassander, moaned all the way, protesting about how this was a terrible idea, how he would die and so on. Eventually, Alexander got annoyed, enhancing his pace to reach Nearchus, who was riding slightly ahead of the others in order to avoid all the grumbling. As soon as the prince reached his side, he smiled sympathetically.

"What did they say to you?"

Alexander rolled his eyes. "They gave me a lecture about how I never listened to them." He paused. "Or something along those lines. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention."

Nearchus chuckled, knowing how typical this was for Alexander. It is, after all, his life story: no matter what the prince did, he would always be against someone's wishes. This, of course, was due to his parents' completely opposite views about every subject on earth. Making one proud, enraged the other, which was useless experience if not for this kind of situations.

As they reached the market, people greeted Alexander with deep bows, offering him every kind of gifts. Cassander smiled proudly as he loved these moments when he could truly feel cherished. That is, if you ignore the fact that all this attention was actually meant for the prince, not him. Cassander always had troubles with facing his non-god reality, so it was usual.

Nearchus pointed out to where Hephaestion would probably be, smiling broadly at the prince's excitement as he rushed forward to the designated place.

"I've come to this market so many times and I never noticed him." Alexander spoke, Nearchus being the only one close enough to hear him.

"He hasn't been here for long. Besides, it hasn't been long since you returned." He lowered his head as he mumbled the last part. Alexander, however, heard him perfectly. Those words were nothing but the truth but they still burned, forcing him to remember the moments he lived away from his home. He shook his head, repeating to himself that he had to look his best for Hephaestion and that nothing would ruin this moment for him.

Realizing what he had spoken, Nearchus kicked himself mentally, thinking what had possessed him to say something so foolish.

"Alexand-" He started, only to be stopped by a motion of Alexander's hand. The prince dismounted from his horse in one flawless move, delivering the reins to the other.

"I'll go by foot from here. Bucephalus is probably too mighty for a first impression." Alexander could see Nearchus troubled expression staring back at him, so he smiled, saying "I'm not angry at you for your honesty. If anything, I find it a very endearing trait of yours."

As the prince spoke those words, Nearchus' features changed to a grin. Even though Nearchus was usually silent and composed, his soul's nature was such a ligh-hearted one that he could only stay gloomy for a limited amount of time. He turned around and left with the horses, shouting along the way, "Try not to get yourself killed!"

--

Alexander leaned against a fence, watching Iphicrates at the distance as he talked to another man who was seemingly preparing a horse to be sold. The man had his back turned to him, but from the toned body and delicate hair, this man could very well be Hephaestion. He would have asked his friends, had they not been too busy hiding in-between the crowd.

"Joy to you, Iphicrates." Alexander spoke, as the soldier he had known for many years reached him. The man looked surprised at first, instantly smiling when he realized who it was that was calling him.

"Ah! Joy to you, your highness." The man answered, cheerfully. He was a few years older than Alexander and had a small amount of battle scars to prove it. Nonetheless, Alexander was taller and with broader shoulders, making them look about the same age. "What brings you to our humble market?"

"I felt like going for a walk." The prince said, staring at the distance to the place where the other man was standing a while ago. "Was that Hephaestion you were talking to right now?" Iphicrates blinked at the turn of the conversation.

"Yes, yes it was, my lord." He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "Although I wouldn't call it a conversation as much as the most incredibly undignified moment in my life."

"Was it that unpleasant?" The prince asked in genuine concern.

"Basically, Hephaestion snorted in my face and told me to go do something inappropriate - and I'm sure physically impossible - to myself before I fell into my senses and dashed away."

Alexander cringed at the description. Iphicrates shrugged helplessly in response.

"I should have known better than to try again. Especially since I only recently managed to get rid of that dreadful bruise he left on my arm the last time." Alexander wondered how many times had he tried approaching the other man, eventually deciding this was perhaps a question best left unasked. Right now, what he wanted to know was whether it would be a good idea to wear a full suit armor when approaching Hephaestion.

"Does he resort to violence so easily?" Iphicrates scoffed, looking anywhere but at the future king.

"If I may, I would rather not discuss the reasons that led him to resort to violence." Iphicrates' frustration grew as he recalled the moment when he had tried bribing Hephaestion into becoming his eromenos. At the time, he was at the peek of his desperation due to peer pressure, which Hephaestion understood perfectly, saying that 'Even though you are incredibly easy to manipulate, you're a good man. Since I somewhat respect that, I won't give you something that will scar.'

"Then, it was not due to his bad-temper?" Alexander asked, hopefulness evident on his voice. The other man shrugged.

"It does not help that he developed some kind of aversion to all men who approach him about those particular matters." Iphicrates proceeded to explain, "He will be turning 19 in a few months; I suppose that is why his devotees' number have increased dramatically these days."

"After the age of 19 it's not very common for a man to become an eromenos. Until then, everybody wants him." A voiced added behind them. They turned and found Perdiccas smiling at them. He kept on talking. "It's not just about appearance. It's about overcoming a man who has it all: beauty, youth, strength, intelligence and power. Anyone who succeeds will certainly be highly praised by all court."

Alexander raised a curious eyebrow at the eloquent description made by his friend. "Have you tried your luck?"

"Some time ago, I might have. Fortunately, I was quick to understand something." He paused, adding the same dramatic effect that Cleitus tried earlier. "That man is not just for anyone."

Alexander smiled, stating "I'm not anyone. I am Alexander."

This obviously increased his confidence dramatically since right then he made his way to Hephaestion, a determined look gracing his features.

Perdiccas leaned forward on the fence and smiled, saying to Iphicrates who stared apprehensively as his prince walked away: "If he does not succeed with his charismatic personality and smooth talk, no one will."

--

The field was surrounded by big crowd, some entertaining themselves by staring at the horses, others by staring at the owner's nephew. Hephaestion stood in the middle of a field, right next to the one where the horses were shown. His uncle, Ormenus, was busy trying to sell his overpriced horses to some misinformed wealthy man who had bought two of them already. Hephaestion was brushing one of those horses since Ormenus insisted the animal should look its best for the owner. His uncle disapproved, however, of how Hephaestion didn't mind doing a servants' work, insisting how bad it looked for someone of his lineage to waste his time in such meaningless tasks. Hephaestion would smile, shake his head and say that it helped him relax. It didn't only help him relax as it made him too busy to pay any mind to the feverish looks he was receiving from some shameless men.

A few moments after Iphicrates left, he spotted a someone walking his way. He squinted at the familiar silhouette, trying to realize who it was.

Standing this close, Alexander could understand perfectly the fascination everyone seemed to hold for this young man. Everything in him seemed to glow in a perfection that appeared humanly impossible; his brown hair shined as the sun caressed it, his deep blue eyes so immensely concentrated on the task at hand, his toned body that stood only a few inches lower than Alexander's own and a skin so delicate that no one could possibly tell he was a soldier. Adonis be damned, this was a whole new meaning for beauty.

"Prince Alexander?" The question interrupted his thoughts as the profound blue eyes turned his way, confusion lightly settling. The man had stopped brushing the horse, facing the prince with a curious expression.

"There's no need for such terms." Alexander spoke, keeping his majestic posture nonetheless. After all, first impressions are highly important, as his mother told him every single day.

"You came to buy a horse, my lord?" Hephaestion asked, still wondering why was the prince standing merely a few feet away from him. Surely, he could appoint some ill-fated servant to do all this kind of work for him, discarding the need for the prince to stand in the middle of the dirt and ruin his brand new sandals.

He had seen the man before, training and riding Bucephalus. The man definably looked like royalty: tall, with broad shoulders, glowing eyes, contagious smile and charismatic personality. Hephaestion had to admit he was very good looking.

"No, actually. I came to talk to you." Hephaestion blinked, surprised. Once he regained control of reality, he asked,

"Is there something troubling you?"

"Not at all." He paused, smiling broadly while making a mental note to never trust gossip again. "Hephaestion, is it?"

"Yes, my prince."

"I have never seen you in a banquet. I'm sure I would have remembered you. You are a noble, though?" Hephaestion looked at him weirdly, still thinking what the man could possibly want with him and his social status.

"My family members are nobles. I never found myself included in that category."

"What do you consider yourself?" Alexander asked, his interest on the man growing every second.

"A soldier." Came the determined answer. "Noble or not, in the army we're all the same." Hephaestion spoke sincerely. He took the whole army notion very seriously, as it was his dream to become a great general. A great general considered any soldier's life was as valuable as his own, an Athenian education from his parents made sure he knew that in order to understand that all diplomatic strategies should be used before resorting to violence.

"I couldn't agree more, but even soldiers attend some banquets." Alexander spoke, not quite in a mood for a logistics' discussion. He was known for being able to discuss anything with anyone but still, a lion didn't have a polite conversation with the gazelle before eating it. Alexander was not about to grow attachments to a prey, either. "Maybe you should join me and my friends at one sometime."

"Sure." Hephaestion said with a smile, because it was more polite than some variation of 'Don't hold your breath'.

Hephaestion thought this whole episode over: the prince had a sudden urge to talk to him, came all the way from the palace, walked over to him and made small talk. Just like that. Either the prince was mocking him or he had other business in mind, and random men only came to talk to him when… oh, damn.

"Is there something you want, my lord, or did you come all the way here just to waste your precious time with me?" Hephaestion spoke, his gentle tone fading away as soon as he understood how this conversation would probably unfold.

"Indeed, I came to invite you to become my eromenos." He bluntly stated, still charmingly smiling.

"Straight to the point." Hephaestion mumbled to himself, questioning how could he not see the other's clear intentions from the beginning. Prince or not, men were all looking for the same thing.

'Now, fake a smile and speak calmly,' he told himself. "I'm immeasurably honored by your invitation, my prince. In spite of this, I rather not indulge myself in the pleasures of the body, I am very focused on my training right now."

"I'm sure those two aren't related." Alexander didn't seem put off the slightest.

Hephaestion's smile mixed with his upcoming frown, creating an unusual expression as he spoke, "If lovers are barely good at what they do, there will be consequences on the body."

"Well, yes, I suppose." The other man stated, still failing to see the problem. With a sigh, Hephaestion tried another approach.

"Your highness, I've heard of your vast knowledge and practice on this area. There would be consequences."

"We can try." Alexander flirted, inching closer to Hephaestion. The soldier took a step back, reaffirming his previous choice.

"I'm sure there are a vast number of young men out there more than willing to appease those desires of yours."

"I-" Alexander paused, noticing Hephaestion's emerging smile as he looked somewhere behind the prince's back.

"Why don't we discuss this matter some other time? I see your friends are having trouble breathing as long as you're standing two feet away from me."

Alexander turned his head, watching as his friends stood at the distance, clearly concerned as they were leaning so further over the fences they could easily fall off with a slight push of the wind. How humiliating.

"They worry themselves due to your reputation." He spoke, distractedly.

"You've heard of that?" Hephaestion asked, failing to conceal his amusement. "And yet, here you are." He spoke, not quite considering the impoliteness of his words.

"I find that gossip only exists for helping us form misjudged opinions about people without all the hassle of getting to know them." Alexander answered, turning his attention back to Hephaestion.

"That might be true, in some other cases. My reputation, however, took long to uphold and is the purest of truths." Hephaestion spoke proudly, finding this to be the perfect excuse he desperately needed in order to get away from the prince, without having the annoyance of getting his head shopped off.

"The breaking an arm thing?" Alexander asked, remembering each and every story that Ptolemy had told him.

"Tried to blackmail me into sleeping with him." Hephaestion generously elucidated, all to make that man leave.

"Knocking unconscious?"

"Nasty comment from a fellow soldier."

"Tying to a tree for days?"

"He tried to grab me by force."

"Selling to the slave market?"

"Never." He stifled a laugh. "But I will take it under consideration for a future application."

Alexander grinned. "You have some peculiar punishments."

Hephaestion raised his eyebrows, teasingly speaking: "You should have known what I did to a man that spat on my clothes when I denied him."

"And what might that be?" Hephaestion leaned forward and whispered something to Alexander. The prince stood there, mouth agape as the soldier smirked, walking away after dedicating him a slight bow.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, your highness." After this, the prince wouldn't want to come anywhere near him…or so Hephaestion thought.

After the man walked away a safe distance, Ptolemy and the others rushed to meet the prince who still stood on the very same spot.

"Alexander! What happened?" Alexander's blank expression softly turned to a mischievous smile, as he simply stated:

"I want him."

--

The palace's guards all turned their attention to the indiscrete entrance of Alexander, who threw the hall's door open, walking in large steps with a rather satisfied smile on his face. The soldiers greeted him with a small bow, watching curiously as the prince's friends came running in after him, some exchanging concerned looks as Ptolemy spoke loudly and repeatedly, his voice echoing thru the walls.

"No, no, no, no, no, no!" He walked angrily, making his way to Alexander. When he reached him, the prince faced him, his smile growing wider.

"Those are many 'No's, Ptolemy." He stated, amused. "You shouldn't concern yourself so much, it will be the death of you."

"You will be the death of me!"

"I sure hope not."

"Alexander, this is a - a, he's a – a" There was one thing everyone around the palace knew about Ptolemy: when he was worried, he stuttered. A lot. However amusing a stuttering Ptolemy proved himself to be, his genuine concern made Alexander stop himself and face his friend, resting his hands on the other's shoulders.

"Ptolemy, you are like a brother to me. You should understand that I cannot give up on something the gods offered me." That statement earned him a scowl, quickly followed by a skeptic question,

"The go-gods offered you Hephaestion?" Ptolemy spoke, the stuttering vanishing as concern politely offered his seat to old lady anger.

"Of course. Who else would deserve someone so perfect?" Ptolemy stared, not quite believing what he was hearing. Hephaestion had innumerous qualities, none of which related to his personality, but he sure wasn't perfect.

To make sure that he was not hearing things, he repeated, "Perfect?"

"He is perfect." The prince reaffirmed, proceeding to explain, "He's stunning,"

"He's a soldier," Ptolemy hastily stated, only to be ignored by the prince, apparently too lost in Hephaestion's qualities to pay him any mind. The rest of the conversation developed in plain sight of the palace's guards and the prince's friends, all of whom watched the exchange of words as some kind of, yet to be invented, tennis game.

"intelligent,"

"who breads horses on his free time,"

"amusing,"

"older than you,"

"wealthy…"

"and known for his immorality."

"Exactly what I've been looking for!"

"Exactly the kind of trouble that you don't need!" Alexander stared, a look of realization overcoming him afterwards.

"Are you jealous?" Ptolemy blinked, baffled, while still trying to calm his heavy breathing.

"What?"

"You all seemed to want Hephaestion for yourselves when we first spoke of him. Now, you strongly disagree of any possibility of a relationship between us." That would seem logical, had his friends not been scared to death of the man. Ptolemy felt frustrated beyond belief.

"Hephaestion is dangerous, I'm only trying to protect you." And you're welcome, you ungrateful little bastard. He added, mentally.

"I can take care of myself."

"Listen to us, Alexander..." Philotas started, walking closer. Alexander frowned, distancing himself from all of them.

"I will, as soon as you have something useful to say." The moment he turned to walk away, the main room's door slammed open, revealing a short-tempered king glaring at them.

"What is all this commotion about?" The young men exchanged worried glances, quickly bowing at the king.

"Hello, father." Alexander spoke cheerfully, approaching him. The man raised an eyebrow at the delighted greeting.

"Someone is in a bright mood." He spoke in a lower tone, his expression gradually changing as he realized the probable reason for this joy. "Don't tell me you have already found your gold?" Philip's eyes shined in anticipation.

_To be continued..._

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This chapter didn't turn out exactly like I wanted it to... I guess the next ones will be better. Thank you very much for all your reviews! :D

Oh, and the next chapter might be slightly delayed because I live in Madeira island and some floods have half destroyed my town. I will try to update it as soon as I can, probably between one or two weeks from now, no more than that since I already started on chapter 3.

Looking forward for your reviews (:


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N: **_This A.N. is brought to you by __SikanderLeto! The amazing reviewer who noticed my stealing habits. _Back to the A.N.: Last time I forgot to explain why I stole Hephaestion's height (the only thing fanfiction lets him have when it takes away all his self-worth and social life). Imagine a taller Hephaestion punching the lights out of Alexander, it would look so much like bullying that it would be hilarious! And sad.

I'm not saying that _will _happen... Actually, I think I am.

I'll shut up now and let you read the story in peace.

* * *

**All that glitters is not gold - Chapter 3**

"Someone is in a bright mood." He spoke in a lower tone, his expression gradually changing as he realized the probable reason for this joy. "Don't tell me you already have found your gold?" Philip's eyes shined in anticipation.

Ptolemy, Philotas, Cassander, Leonnatus and Nearchus froze at the question. They knew Alexander wouldn't think twice before boasting about Hephaestion to his father, which would probably lead to the king demanding to meet the extraordinary man, leading to a lot of denial, kicking, screaming and, eventually, kidnapping. As they would probably be the ones doing all the kidnapping, they would also be expected to explain to the king why his son was found dead after being poisoned by the supposed eromenos.

The urgency to dissuade Alexander of his suicidal ideas evolved as this whole scenario developed in their minds. Unfortunately, no one had the slightest idea of how to stop the conversation from unfolding.

Then, came the judgment's day call: "Father, I-"

All of a sudden, Leonnatus screamed loudly, successfully drowning out Alexander's words. Everyone turned their attention to the earsplitting man, who silenced himself immediately.

His friends understood that Leonnatus could be very unpredictable, spontaneous even, so this didn't surprise them all that much. If they were walking near a river, Leonnatus could very well jump in the middle of it, then go back to shore, continuing the conversation he had interrupted with his dive, simply stating he was feeling too warm. Usually, this crazy behavior had a reason; today they were not so sure. That is, until they realized this created a distraction and decided to proclaim Leonnatus a deafening genius.

Philip raised an eyebrow, he knew Alexander's friends were slightly… unusual, but this was simply bizarre.

"What on earth is wrong with you, boy?" The king asked.

"Uh, I... Uh." He mumbled, looking around for an escape. His friends certainly applauded his creativity, as he could observe from the relieved look on their faces, but no one knew what to do next.

"Speak up, boy!" The king's voice roared thru the hall.

"Philotas!" The man automatically stated while pointing at his victim. Philotas stared at him, dumbfounded.

"Philiotas?" The king repeated, asking himself if this conversation could get any weirder, then remembering these boys were friends with his son so it could.

"Yes, Philotas." He nodded, feeling a chill down his spine as some kind of discrete bad omen, doubtlessly because Philotas was glaring furiously at him. "He has been very eager to talk to you about... about, what was it about, Philotas?" He turned to the man who would have been his murder right then, had the power of wishful thinking actually worked.

"I don't know. Why don't you tell me?" Philotas spoke thru clenched teeth.

"Don't waste my time, son of Parmenion. Just speak." The king's patience was starting to fail him.

Philotas simply ignored his sudden urge to kill Leonnatus. Taking a deep breath, and conventionally adding his best smile, he walked towards the king.

"As a matter of fact, it just came to my mind." Philotas spoke, earning a curious look from Philip. "We" He started, motioning at all the prince's friends besides Leonnatus. If he was going down, he might as well take some company. "would like to talk to you about an idea we had..."

Philip's curiosity vanished along with his patience. Those boys had no ideas that could possibly interest him.

"...for a banquet." As soon as Philotas uttered those words, the king's eyes won back a glint of interest. No matter how terrible the idea could prove itself to be, the king was always very interested about anything related to banquets. Also, he would have an excuse to yell at them if they failed to amuse him.

"Very well then, we'll talk."

Leonnatus sighed in relief as he watched them all walk away. However, the relief didn't last long since the man soon realized he was now on his own to dissuade Alexander from his unhealthy fascination for Hephaestion.

"You are all acting weird today, aren't you?" Leonnatus rolled his eyes at Alexander's question.

"Well, maybe you should – Where are you going?" Leonnatus asked, realizing the prince was already walking to the other end of the hall.

"I'm going to meet Cleitus." Alexander shouted. He really had to find some friends with less suspicious stalking activities.

"Why do you need him? You have enough terrible ideas without his advice." Alexander was too far to hear any of this, innocently making his way to the room Cleitus was using to work on some maps Parmenion had brought him.

"Cleitus!" He called, easily spotting the man in the middle of the room, surrounded by scrolls and looking bored out of his mind.

"Your highness!" He spoke enthusiastically, but only because someone managed to come and save him from that repulsively useless pile of scrolls. He bowed, wearing a playful smirk that vanished as he raised his head to look at the prince. "You don't have any visible bruises. Did he go for the kidneys?" The officer asked, slightly disappointed that there was no black eye or broken arm to make fun of. That Hephaestion boy must be losing his spirit.

Alexander pulled a chair and sat. "He's not the evil you put him up to be."

"Maybe it was your charm that got to him."

"Maybe being surrounded by such foolishness all this time made him an easy target."

As Cleitus ran out of witty polite comebacks, a staring contest settled, which is quite unfair if you consider Cleitus' shorter-than-a-fly's attention span. When the officer laid back on his chair, admitting his defeat, Alexander smiled and leaned back too.

"I came here for your advice."

"You did?" Cleitus was surprised, staring at Leonnatus for a confirmation that the boy wasn't drunk.

"I'm as perplexed as you are." The other man stated, earning himself a scowl from the prince.

"You were honest with me this morning, I expect the same behavior now." Alexander's determined eyes stared at Cleitus with such intensity that the man had no other choice than comply. Beneath that entirely rough exterior, laid a slightly less rough interior, dying to manipulate the prince's life.

"Very well, I will enjoy this." The man's smile quickly twisted to a frown as he noticed Leonnatus was still standing in the room. "Why are you still here?"

Leonnatus blinked, feigning innocence. "Can I not learn from your life experience as well?" How Cleitus despised that boy.

"You can, it will do you good." Alexander could feel the hate radiating from the bodies of those men. He cleared his throat, a discrete way of scolding them for their silent dispute. Both men looked his way; Cleitus mumbled something inaudible while Leonnatus crossed his arms, laying against the wall as he stood waiting for the precious advice.

"It's not exactly clear to me why you have to bed a man to please your father, particularly a feisty one like that, but the point is you have. Now, you need to focus your efforts on making him understand how much you want him." He paused. "In my opinion, you should ride thru the training fields naked, while waving a flag with his name on it." Cleitus stated, looking as serious as if he just declared war on Persia.

Leonnatus blinked, wondering if someone could in fact be that stupid. Alexander, ever the optimist, thought there was actually some wisdom deeply hidden in between those words, so he asked: "Why would I do that?"

'To amuse me, obviously' seemed a little too direct, so Cleitus tried another approach.

"To show him that you would strip of your material possessions for him." He paused. "The flag is just for identification, I suppose."

As Alexander sat quietly, Cleitus praised his own intelligence and Leonnatus wondered if Alexander went brainless the moment he saw Hephaestion. Alexander was thinking if he seemed so desperate for Cleitus to play him so bluntly. He might be a little overwhelmed by Hephaestion and slightly surprised that the man didn't take him immediately, but he would never in his life stroll naked for something as empty as love. Of course, he could not divine he would be doing exactly that in a few years.

As he thought the prince was not in his exceptionally intelligent self, Leonnatus found the need to stand up for him.

"Alexander, why don't you go see him tomorrow?" Maybe his brain would be back from his well-deserved vacation by then. "By then he would have had the time to clear his mind."

"I see... what you are trying to say is I didn't fail my conquest, he simply wasn't in the mood." Alexander spoke in deep thought.

"No, I-" Leonatus started, noticing that Alexander's brain might have died, but his self-worth was still live and kicking.

"Tomorrow I will try and prevail." Alexander spoke with confidence, rising from his chair. He turned to his friend, smiling. "Where would I be without you, Leonatus?"

"In Hades." The man bluntly stated. The prince frowned.

"I wouldn't go that far. Let's just say I'd live with a little bit of myself missing." The little part that was known by most people as 'better judgment'.

"We should be going." Leonnatus spoke, turning to Cleitus. "I'm sure that Cleitus has better things to do than to give his doubtful advice all day long."

Cleitus smiled smugly.

"I am always available for your highness's wishes."

"It's what your expected to do." Leonnatus spat. Spending each and every day with Cassander earned him some experience of how to express hate with no foundation.

"Indeed." Cleitus spoke with a discrete frown, which quickly shifted to a grin as he spoke, "Have fun, lads. Do anything I wouldn't do."

Leonnatus stared dubiously at him from the door that he held open for Alexander as they were about to leave the room. "That doesn't leave much out of the realm of possibility."

---

Leonnatus made that dreadful suggestion last afternoon hoping that this, as many other of the prince's fascinations, would disappear over night. It didn't.

After the morning meal, the prince had rushed to the stables, telling the servants to prepare Bucephalus promptly. Alexander waited outside the stables when his friends came, all but Nearchus wearing troubled expressions. Ptolemy wasn't with them that morning, probably too busy sulking and poisoning Alexander's breakfast.

"You are going there again?" Cassander almost screamed in exasperation.

Alexander ignored him. He spent all night thinking about that man and he wasn't going to give up, no matter how much these people insisted for him to let Hephaestion be. Yesterday he could feel the connection between them; he knew there was something that the gods wanted him to notice about that man. He hoped it had something to do with his libido.

"You're either very brave or very dumb." Philotas mumbled as a servant came out with Bucephalus.

"I'm done with your opinions about him. You are free to follow me if you are able to control your need to interfere with my life."

Nearchus raised his arm promptly, earning a smile of approval from Alexander and several growls of reprimand from his other friends. He didn't care what any of them thought, all he knew was this was going to be a show of a lifetime and he would definably not lose a second of it.

---

They rode for twenty minutes in silence, until Nearchus got bored and asked Alexander if he knew the whereabouts of the man. The prince nodded and spoke with pride.

"Of course. I stalked Parmenion until he eventually provided that the army would have today and tomorrow off." He then paused, fighting to remember the explanation that the general had given him. "It had something to do with Cleitus not being able to keep track of some papers and them needing time to start all over."

Nearchus didn't need to ask why would Parmenion know of Hephaestion, the man just knew these things. It's as if he kept track of every single soldier that ever belonged to Philip's army. It was creepy, really.

"Where did he tell you Hephaestion would be?"

"He said Hephaestion would spend these two days at his uncle's farm." Alexander walked near the edge of the cliff. "Which should be right about… there." He had no need to point out the specific place, as the farm was massive enough to occupy at least half of the land they could see from there.

"You have an eye for the wealthy ones, don't you?" Nearchus muttered, making the math about how much this whole land must be worth.

"Years of practice." Suddenly, Alexander cried out. "There he is." He pointed out something in between all the people and animals at that place. Nearchus squinted, trying to figure out where had he spotted Hephaestion.

"Are you sure? They kind of all look the same from here." He spoke, still trying his best to make out any of the faces. His efforts were suddenly interrupted as Alexander shouted,

"Joy to you, Hephaestion!" He voice was loud enough for Nearchus to have to calm his war-prepared horse after the fright. After that greating, every single face he couldn't make out was staring at them.

"Do you think he noticed me?" Alexander asked, turning towards Nearchus with a goofy grin that threatened to fall of his face. "You can't see very clearly from down there, can you?"

"I think everyone noticed you." Nearchus replied, fighting his urge to laugh.

Alexander didn't seem to hear him at all, simply stating "I'm going to talk to him. Wait here."

"Oh, I'll wait." The other man spoke with a discrete smirk. "I wouldn't miss this for the world."

Alexander's reluctant eromenos didn't have a care in the world moments before the loud calling. The man stood reading over a scroll that had just been delivered to him, containing some of the latest finances of his uncle.

Such was his peacefulness that Hephaestion couldn't quite believe himself when he heard the screaming sound of his name. His fears where confirmed as he spotted Bucephalus on the top of the hill next to the farm. He prayed silently that the horse had suddenly become very friendly and the prince decided to let someone, anyone, take him for a walk.

However, as the horse made his way down the hill and became easier to perceive, Hephaestion's hope vanished. The prince tied Bucephalus to a nearby tree, acknowledging the bowing servants with a courteous nod.

Hephaestion raised an eyebrow as the man with apparently nothing even remotely close to common sense or decency walked over to him.

"Did you see me up there?" He asked with the excitement of a toddler.

"How could I not, my lord?" Hephaestion asked, his respect maintained only due to his love for Macedonia and it's need for a future king.

"There is no need for those terms. Call me Alexander." The prince said in a light tone. Today he felt so carefree next to the other man, especially without that annoying concern over nothing.

"I don't feel comfortable calling you by-" Hephaestion spoke, only to be promptly interrupted by the prince.

"Nonsense! I call you by yours, do I not?" The other man felt slightly scared of this new lighthearted persona of Alexander.

"I guess." Hephaestion had longed realized there was no point in arguing his point with the prince.

"Have you thought about my proposal?" From the little time they had spend together, Hephaestion could say he only admired one thing about this man: his straightforwardness.

"My lo-" He started, earning a scowl from the other man. "Alexander," He instantly corrected. "I thought I made myself clear last time." Alexander stared blankly at him.

Hephaestion sighed, exasperatedly, while realizing this whole idea of his desperately needed a merciful death before it could cause any damage. Taking a deep breath, he took a leap of faith, stating: "The answer isn't just no, if there's a word beyond no, that's what it is."

A few seconds of uncomfortable silence settled, all servants staring at them with their mouths hanging open at their master's bluntness. Hephaestion silently prayed for his own life as soon as he noticed Alexander's loss of expression.

"So you haven't thought about it?" The servants sighed in relief as Hephaestion blinked at the other's stupidity.

It's not as if Alexander was dense, he wasn't. The problem was that his brain was not used to have his will denied at all, reality just didn't fit with the concept that he couldn't have anyone he wanted.

Hephaestion paused, experiencing an internal battle. Half of him wanted to beat the crap out of that moron that didn't seem to understand the word 'no'. The other half desperately repeated that the court didn't look too kindly upon soldiers who castrate future kings.

He sighed for the second time, placing a sympathetic smile on his lips before speaking.

"Alexander, I am not interested in having an erastes at all."

"Ow." Realization seemed to dawn, but not for long. "Well, then I suppose you will need some time to reconsider that too." He said with a good-natured smile.

"What?" Hephaestion's voice was harsh in disbelief.

"Where would you be staying tonight?" The prince asked, ignoring the other's question.

"I'm speeding the night at my uncle's house." Hephaestion froze when he realized he just gave away the place where he lived. Cursing his own honesty, he thought what could possibly be so unusual about this man that made him give away any information about himself without a second thought. Charming people were dangerous.

Pleased with the information, Alexander gave a reasonable amount of time for Hephaestion to reconsider his offer. "So... I will see you at your uncle's house, tonight? At sunset?"

"Prince Alexander!" Hephaestion cried out in exasperation.

"Later then?"

"Oh, by the gods." He massaged his temple, working to calm himself. "Fine. Just leave, alright?" The rash tone went by unnoticed.

"I'll see you then." The prince nodded at him, then left to get his horse.

The servants all smiled knowingly at Hephaestion when they noticed him staring at the prince as he walked away. Instantly, the usually kind and composed man, glared at them while hissing,

"Don't speak of any of this to my uncle."

He then rushed back to what he was doing, until the weigh on his conscience became so heavy that he went to apologize individually to all servants he had glared at. All of them waved it off, wishing him good luck with the prince. Some of the older women even patted his head, saying what a good boy he was for leaving aside his pride and apologizing to them.

Hephaestion might never notice, but all of those people who served him loved him more than they did to any master.

---

The prince's friends were in one of the palace's common rooms, discussing the possibility of resorting to some drastic measures for the man's safety. A few minutes after the meeting started, the cause of it burst thru the door, announcing the good news:

"Hephaestion took me as his erastes!"

This, of course, was nowhere near reality. As a sudden change of spirit was very unlikely for Hephaestion, the other men exchanged skeptical glances and then turned those said glances to Alexander.

The young man rolled his eyes, admitting, "Hephaestion almost said maybe."

He then turned and left the room, speeding the rest of his lovely day thinking about the stories Ptolemy had told him and that Hephaestion later confirmed. He felt proud that nothing of that happened to him and that Hephaestion might consider him special.

Anyway, these stories should have taught him that throwing pebbles at Hephaestion's window at 4 am was a poor choice, but Alexander had powerful optimism.

Hephaestion woke suddenly, looking around to find the source of the noise that interrupted his well-deserved sleep. A small rock made an impact against the window. He picked up his sword from the dresser as a matter of precaution, even thought he was pretty sure of the source of this nuisance.

"Of course," The boy sighed as he threw the window open. "Prince Alexander."

"Hephaestion!" Said prince called, overly excited.

"Aren't you a little bit old to be throwing rocks at other people?" Being sleep-deprived made him somewhat harsh.

"They are too small to cause any damage."

"I suppose." Hephaestion spoke, dismissively throwing one of them back to the ground. "Then they must be a metaphor for something of the same size."

Alexander look of distaste lasted a few seconds, being quickly overcomed by a confident smile. "The smaller the rock, the bigger the need. Wouldn't you say?"

"I'd say no rock is large enough for me right now." Hephaestion mumbled to himself.

"Now, do you have an answer?"

"Let's try this again." From what he had heard about the prince, he knew that the man loved puzzles and enigmas: things that you had to find the answer by yourself. So, he tried that approach.

"Do you know the amazing eternal love that Achilles and Patroclus felt for each other?" Alexander's eyes lit up instantly, proud that Hephaestion knew of his heroes.

"Yes, of course!" Hephaestion nodded.

"I feel the polar opposite of that for you."

Alexander frowned, speaking hesitantly. "You… dislike me?"

"Yes!" The other confirmed, happy and relieved.

Alexander just stood there, confusion gracing his features. "Why? Am I not attractive enough, old enough?" He asked, earning a sympathetic smile of Hephaestion.

"Alexander, there is nothing wrong with you." He then paused and mumbled. "Not physically, at least."

"Well, what if I cut my hair?" Alexander suggested, his confidence working hard to mend this situation.

"That would still be a no." Hephaestion didn't even need to think for a second before giving his answer.

"Train more?"

The suggestions went on and on, until Hephaestion threatened to 'remove a body part that you would miss terribly' if he didn't leave him alone. Alexander left, not because of the threat, but because he had left the palace with no guard, which would probably create somewhat of a riot if he not manage to sneak in before dawn.

---

The next morning, Alexander paced around the one of the palace's common rooms, accompanied by his closest friends, all of whom were wondering how many times had they been in that situation; the prince did something he shouldn't, they came together to discuss a way out of trouble and Alexander would ignore their advice, proving the meeting completely useless.

Nowadays they didn't even bother that much. Cassander yawned constantly in boredom, standing next to Philotas who was sitting down, supporting his elbows over a table while looking out the window. Nearchus leaned against another window, arms crossed and fighting to keep his eyes open. Leonnatus entertained himself with whatever item he happened to find lying around and Ptolemy was still annoyed with Alexander, so he only sat, glaring.

"He didn't seem interested in my body at all because when I offered to change it, he kept denying me." Alexander briefly stopped pacing to stare blankly at the distance. Nearchus blinked, as the prince seemed to be looking in his direction, immediately feigning great interest in all his blabber. A few seconds later, Alexander's features earned a look of realization.

"It's like he was looking for my… personality." Ptolemy snorted, thinking 'good luck with that'. Alexander, occupied with his own musings, didn't pay him any mind. "But why does it matter? Sex is not related to any of that." Suddenly, he stopped pacing again, turning to Ptolemy in a silent desperate plea for help.

Ptolemy, surprised, sat himself straight and stated, "Oh, now you want my advice?"

Approaching his friend and placing his hands on the other's shoulders, Alexander spoke, "Ptolemy, you're the only one who can tell me what he's thinking." Ptolemy's frown was slowly dissolving into an expression that clearly stated that the prince had better work on his compliments if he wanted any help from him. "You understand this matters of emotions in ways that could never be equaled." A smug smile appeared on Ptolemy's face, instantly disappearing upon the prince's next words, "You're like a woman!"

Silence took place as his friends exchanged awkward glances. Ptolemy frowned.

"I'm sure you intended to place a discrete compliment in between those words but I can guarantee calling me a woman won't grant you any support."

Alexander was smart. He was funny. He was attractive. But he had no clue whatsoever when it came to love.

Ptolemy knew him well enough to know this. Alexander didn't take it too well when his emotions conflicted with his ideals. As long as he didn't try to achieve any deep emotional connection as a goal, Alexander succeeded brilliantly at anything. From the point where he say, had his whole pride pending on a subject who happened to avoid him at any cost, the clear thinking seemed to have never existed.

Alexander tried his best to look sad enough for Ptolemy to help him, but not desperate enough to look pathetic. Being an expert at coldhearted manipulation, Alexander instantly succeeded. Shame that Hephaestion wasn't just that simple.

Ptolemy sighed as his determination failed him. "Some people have the need for an emotional connection for sexual intercourse. Some others do it with as little remorse as having a meal."

The others stared blankly at him. Ptolemy cursed under his breath and then proceeded to explain, "You have no other way to reach him than thru his heart."

Alexander wasn't pleased with that answer since it sounded like an awful amount of trouble just for a few nights with the man. As he was experiencing this kind of feelings, Cassander's words came as a salvation.

"Maybe you should try manipulating him into trusting you." Upon Cassander's words, Ptolemy questioned himself why he even bothered.

"That's immoral!" Alexander promptly spoke, seemingly shocked. "Perfect! We'll try it!"

Any shred of hope left in Ptolemy's soul vanished within seconds. He got up from his seat, angrily stating, "That's an amazing idea! Let's go straight to the little mind games before even giving a chance to your personality." After reconsidering his words, Ptolemy wondered if it wasn't actually better not to give a chance to Alexander's personality. Poor bastard it's probably hiding in a corner in that empty shell of his anyway.

Used to ignoring Ptolemy's words, Alexander immediately convened a plan.

"We shall waste no time! Tomorrow we'll- wait, he probably has training tomorrow."

"Yes, but he usually goes out to the waterfall to refresh himself after training all morning." Cassander spoke, all-knowingly. Noticing the curious looks the others threw his way, he quickly shrugged and spoke, "So what if I know a little something about the man? Obviously, it was merely research in order to assist the prince."

"The waterfall… that gives me an idea." A mischievous smile graced Alexander's features as he excitedly proceeded to explain his scheme to his unwilling friends.

As soon as the ingenious plan was properly explained, Alexander sat back and watched his words play their magic. Unfortunately, all the applause and presence of the utmost respect for his cunning tactics was instead replaced for appalled expressions and mumbled disagreements.

"We really need to stop encouraging Alexander to think." Ptolemy spoke, still awestruck and refusing to take his eyes of the future king.

"He's a complete danger to mankind." Philotas completed with the exact same look.

"We'll all be in danger!" Ptolemy spoke, earning back his senses.

"That's reckless, even for you." Leonnatus agreed, concern evident on his voice.

"It's perfectly safe, my friend." The prince spoke proudly.

"How do you know he won't just kill us?" Alexander blinked at Nearchus' words. He hadn't really thought of that. Cassander intervened.

"He's had an Athenian education. He won't commit murder unless he truly sees his life hanging by a thread." As his friends turned to him with the same inquiring expression of earlier, he raised his arms and promptly spoke, "Research!"

"See?" Alexander spoke, proud of Cassander's intervention, probably for the first time in his life. "It's a well-thought plan that will certainly work perfectly. Don't you agree?" The prince wasn't particularly concerned if they happened to agree or not, he just thought it would be nice to ask as they were a vital part of his plan.

"I think it's a great idea." Cassander spoke, earning even more furious glares from the other future generals.

All this enthusiasm from Cassander was not because of his devotion to the prince, as some might think. The man simply and shamelessly expected Hephaestion's destruction in the worse way possible. Cassander considered that the one who denied him deserved nothing more than to suffer Macedonia's anger crashing down on him, and the only way to achieve that purpose was thru Alexander. In the noble man's mind, as soon as Alexander's spirit was completely turned to dust by Hephaestion, the prince would have no choice but to take revenge in the most terrible way imaginable. When that happens, Cassander will be sure to take a front seat to watch the massacre happen.

Alexander's friends stood in silence; there were so many things terribly wrong with this plan that they didn't even know where to start.

Not particularly caring for their answer, Alexander smiled, said his goodbyes, and left the room. Philotas turned to Cassander.

"You are by far the worst human being on earth."

"Thank you." Cassander spoke, a smug smile resting on his face.

_To be continued..._

* * *

Hi :D Madeira Island is back on it's feet and here I am again!

This bigger-than-usual chapter is supposed to bribe you into forgetting the update delay.

Thank you so much for all the reviews! (even though I'm sad that I had 17 reviews on the first chapter and just 9 on the second one. Is it worse, or different? T.T)

I'll stop whining now :D See you... hm, you know... this month.


	4. Chapter 4

**A.N: **Why, oh, why does spellscheck hate me? Thank you_ geolke _for showing me the way through! Haha, see? Learned my lesson.

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**All that glitters is not gold - Chapter 4**

The next day came too soon for the nobles, as it marked the beginning of Alexander's plan. Acting in accord with said plan, the prince made his way to the waterfall, a confident look on his face as he studied the background where his friends should be hiding in. The waterfall was one of his favorite places as a child, where he spent hours practicing his diving skills, much to his mother's horror. He had to admit there were probably better, less suicidal places to practice, but the sixty feet fall helped him clear his mind.

Reaching the top, he found Hephaestion leaning over the stream of water that delicately made his way down the cliff. The prince still remembered this place perfectly: the small trees that here and there shadowed over the stream, the bright sun making the river shine as pure crystal and the silent breeze that made this place perfect in every way.

The man was still fully clothed, only his sandals were tied to the horse's saddle and his sword resting against a tree. Upon hearing a stranger's arrival, he turned and frowned.

"Prince Alexander." Hephaestion's words left his mouth more in tone of impatience than that of surprise. He figured that the royal family had a hard time giving up their desires, with the whole ruling over Macedonia thing, but this was all too much.

"Hephaestion!" The prince exclaimed in a merry sound, mentally patting himself on the back for his own talent as an actor. "What a strange coincidence." He spoke, dismounting Bucephalus in one swift move.

"I've known you for three days and since then I can't seem to go anywhere without running into you." Hephaestion stood as Alexander made his way to him, holding Bucephalus reins.

"Destiny." Alexander suggested.

"Misfortune." Hephaestion retorted. The prince decided to ignore him, instead turning his attention to the stream.

"Don't let me interrupt your bath." He spoke, a sly smile on his lips.

"You're not." Hephaestion spat, knowing it to be a lie. He could probably live with Alexander's unwelcome visits, but the thought of having that pervert watch him as he washed was simply repulsive.

"Then proceed." Alexander calmly suggested.

Hephaestion awkwardly turned to the water and then back to the prince, speaking, "The water is too cold."

Realizing the true reason for his hesitation, Alexander simply kept his character and said, "You have no need to worry, I won't pressure you into becoming my eromenos. I see it as a position of honor, not one that needs unwilling participants." Hephaestion opened his mouth to retort but the prince interrupted.

"But if you do change your mind, you know where to find me." Hephaestion rolled his eyes. The vain hope that Alexander decided to forget him vanishing in mere seconds.

"Prince Alexander, after our small conversation last night I thought you had understood what I meant." He spoke in a determined tone, deciding to put an end to this story once and for all.

"I-" Alexander started, only to be stopped by a motion of Hephaestion's hand, who proceeded to explain the matter further.

"And what I meant was: if we were the last two human beings on earth, I would be trying to start a family with Bucephalus."

The prince blinked, turning his attention to the horse, which in return looked back at the man. They stared at each other for a few seconds, making Hephaestion wonder if there was some kind of telepathic communication going on, then figuring it was probably due to their identical intelligence that the horse and the owner seemed to get along so well.

Suddenly, a discrete noise was heard, coming from the bushes.

"Did you hear that?" The soldier asked, looking around for the source of the sound. A gallop sound tore his attention away to another event, namely the sudden escape of his horse, which was now running at full strength to nowhere.

"My horse!" Hephaistion said. As soon as the words left his mouth he wished he could recall them and instead say something slightly more logical, like 'My dignity!' or 'My sandals!'

"Parmenion will have my head." He mumbled as soon as he remembered he had brought one of the army's horses. On the bright side, if it got scared that easily it was also pretty useless in battle.

"You have other things to worry about." A voice spoke huskily behind him. Hephaestion turned swiftly, finding five armed masked men standing in an attack position. Alexander had already reached for his sword, moving against two of the presumed thieves.

Hephaestion grabbed his own sword, sitting by the tree, using it to defend himself from one of the robbers. At first, he could easily dodge their attacks, making it effortless for him to strike on his own. However, as the battle went on, it became more difficult to defend himself. It was just as if the thieves were testing the waters before attacking him with all their strengths. They certainly were good at what they did; their movements revealed knowledge and practice in the area, something all but common in between thieves. Good as they might be, Hephaestion was better.

Getting rid of one of them by punching him in the stomach, the next one attacked him from the top, making him raise his own sword to stop the enemy's blade from cutting him in half. Suddenly, he felt his knees grow weak as someone tripped him to the floor. However, this was not nearly enough to beat him. Kneeling on the floor, he used the same idea and tripped the one who first attacked him, then turned to the other and used his sword against him. As a third one came from behind, he raised his leg and kicked him strongly in the crotch.

Mouth agape, Alexander could only watch as, one by one, Hephaestion destroyed all his friends and, consequently, any of his attempts to rescue him. Every time they attacked in pairs, it was meant for Hephaestion to fall and Alexander to come and save him from the bad men. No need to say, they had underestimated Hephaestion greatly.

As he realized he was being quite useless to the battle, Alexander threw himself on top of Philotas, who still lay in the ground, grabbing onto his crotch.

"You have other things to worry about." Alexander mimicked Philotas' voice in a whisper, in a mocking tone. "Seriously?"

Philotas interrupted his agonizing moment to whisper back, "Well, next time I'll just pat him in the back and politely inform him I will proceed to attack him." He spat, while still whimpering in agony.

Alexander rolled his eyes. Moments later, he and Hephaestion traded short glances, raising the need to appear useful. "I'm punching you now." He whispered to Philotas, who frowned and responded.

"Fine." Alexander punched him softly, but still taking a huge commotion to do it.

"You need to knock down his sword." The prince advised, now pretending to suffocate the enemy.

"You fight him!" Philotas hissed. "You're both invincible so it would spear us all the misery."

"Alexander!" Hephaestion called, concern filling his voice. Alexander couldn't be happier. As soon as he caught a sly smile trying to appear on his lips, he quickly destroyed it by remembering himself he was supposed to look troubled.

"This one's down!" He yelled to the other man. Turning his attention to Philotas, he said, "Play dead." He then ran towards Hephaestion, standing next to each other as the remaining thieves gathered in front of them.

"They know what they're doing." Hephaestion mumbled.

"You think they're soldiers?"

"I think they are excellent soldiers." Alexander almost rolled his eyes, imagining how the others would blush and giggle like little girls at Hephaestion's compliment.

"Who are you?" Hephaestion spoke in a tone of authority. The thieves looked quite unsure for a second, assuming they couldn't say more as Philotas had almost threatened their mission by speaking to Hephaestion in the first place. So, as good old barbarians, they attacked again in order to avoid further conversations.

As Alexander was about to make his grand heroic move, a gallop was heard. All men turned their attentions to two others approaching them by horse at great speed.

The future companions exchanged concerned expressions as Hephaestion sighed, relieved, and said "Argeus, Simmias."

Shrugging in harmony, the young men just assumed they were supposed to fight those ones too. However, as the forms approached, they realized in how much trouble they were in. The two men promptly came down from their horses, swords in hand as the thieves gaped at their size. One was terribly tall and the other incredibly tiny.

Cassander, being a true friend and gentleman, quickly turned to the smaller one, who seemed the easy way out. "I'll take the elf!" He spoke, altering his voice with a harsher tone. All seemed good and easy, until the small man suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs and charged against him.

Eventually, all men were caught. Alexander unwillingly made Nearchus and Ptolemy his victories, adding to that of Philotas. Hephaestion cornered Ptolemy, the elf trapped Leonnatus and the tall man grabbed Cassander by the collar.

"Who are you?" Hephaestion repeated, still fighting to catch his breath.

"You ogre!" Came the redefine tones of Cassander, eagerly kicking the air in vain hopes of freedom.

Hephaestion froze. He had heard that petulant voice before in some miserable episode he'd rather forget, when a man named Cassander insisted that they'd spend the night together.

"Cassander?" The supposed question came off more as an affirmation as he stepped forward to retreat the thief's mask.

Cassander stopped suddenly, closing his eyes and feeling the fabric of the mask slip through his face in one easy move. When he summed up enough courage to open them again, which took him some time, he found many pairs of eyes plastered on him.

Now, Cassander didn't consider himself a people person and, therefore, he didn't usually read through people's expressions easily. Today, however, was an exception; he could completely decipher Ptolemy's exasperation, Nearchus' amusement, Leonnatus' confusion, Philotas' irritation and last, but not least, Alexander's panic, correctly translated to 'Oh, by Zeus. What have you done, you idiot?!'

Hephaestion stared, confused, as his mind tried to reason all the information rushing at once. Slowly, he turned to Alexander.

"You!" He pointed out. At that moment, a common feeling of worry was felt by all the present. Hephaestion's friends, also known as 'ogre' and 'elf', as Cassander so politely enunciated, knew the man was about to do something not so pleasant to the prince. Alexander's friends didn't actually knew anything besides the fact that this was all a terrible, terrible mistake and they should have known better than to go along with the prince's unwise schemes.

There are probably many ways to describe what happened next. Essentially, as Hephaestion was about to rip out the prince's throat with his own bare hands, he stepped on the end of the cliff on which Alexander was standing; the ground gave out, Alexander fell backwards and Hephaestion, wanting to murder the prince by himself and not have a piece of dirt do it for him, reached forward, trying to grab the other man.

The idea backfired horribly.

The future companions' eyes grew as they watched them both fall down the waterfall, silently. Probably because screaming like little girls was neither manly nor helpful.

A long silenced followed, as the men watched the trail of water on the end of the waterfall. The silenced ceased when the ogre and the elf left in a hurry, presumably to find their lost, and potentially drowned, friend.

"He wanted to save him and ended up almost killing him. Ironic." Nearchus snickered, all attentions still focused on the water.

"This is not ironic." Cassander spoke, a high pinch of panic on his tone. He proceeded to explain, "Ironic is so typical that it makes you laugh later. This will definitely not make us laugh later. Later, we'll be dead!"

"Alexander is a brilliant swimmer, he'll be fine." Nearchus added mentally that Alexander was more lucky than wise and could easily pull off something like that and leave unharmed.

All of the sudden, a question popped in Leonnatus mind, he voiced it.

"But is Hephaestion?" They exchanged quick looks as soon as those words left Leonnatus' mouth. Cassander rolled his eyes. A few seconds later, they were running downhill, mostly in hopes of saving Hephaestion's life and earning his eternal devotion; in Cassander's case, expecting to finding Hephaestion barely breathing, so he could suffocate him effortlessly.

---

Alexander emerged with ease, frantically searching for a sign of Hephaestion. He had seen the later hurt his knee when he reached forward to grab his arm but it seemed impossible to find him in the water.

A few seconds later, he dived, finding Hephaestion fighting to release his chiton, trapped under a stone. Alexander quickly reached him, tearing the cloth so Hephaestion could emerge. He did so on his own, with a close guard of the prince.

Hephaestion reached the shore, holding his stomach and coughing loudly. Alexander kneeled by his side, resting his hand on the other's back. As soon as the coughing stopped, Hephaestion slapped the other man's hand away. Alexander let him be, thinking it was all for a need of space. That was, until Hephaestion got up and walked away from him, not spearing a word.

The prince frowned, rushing forward to capture the other man's wrist. Hephaestion's eye twitched. "Prince Alexander, let me go before I do something that will make you infertile and have me executed." Alexander smirked, releasing his hold.

"I'm sorry, but I rescued you and I do feel that I have do right to some…" He licked his lips. "retribution."

Anyone present could feel the hate building up inside Hephaestion's, usually calm and collected, form. However bad Alexander's survival extinct might be, he could detect some uncomfortable aura around him. Probably a storm coming, his brain put eloquently.

Hephaestion turned to the future king, fists closed and teeth clenching. Alexander took a step back, studying the unusual expression the other man had, not that it made him any less beautiful.

"You did not rescue me, you oaf, you nearly killed me!" The soldier spoke with a low, threatening tone, mostly to keep his anger under some, barely present, grip.

Alexander seemed thrown down for half a second before his ego came up, sword in a hand, shield on the other, riding a white horse, easily destroying any attempt of denial that Hephaestion would cast upon him.

"My dear Hephaestion, I assure you, you would have drown had it not been for my gallant action." Hephaestion took a threatening step closer.

"I would have no need for your 'gallant action'," He copied Alexander's tone on those last two words. "had you not schemed a fake robbery to gain my trust."

"I was merely trying got make you realize the strong feelings you hold for me." The prince enunciated, smiling charmingly.

"Strong feelings?!" Hephaestion repeated. "I am very much aware of my 'strong feelings' for you. Aversion, loathing, spite!" Again, these words seemed to hold no effect whatsoever on the man's confidence.

"Those are strong words, my eromenos." Hephaestion stared at him, dumbfounded.

Trying to talk some sense into Alexander, Hephaestion realized, was like sending off one soldier to conquer Persia. A deaf, blind soldier, that hadn't eaten for three days and had a spoon as a weapon.

"I took you for a bright soldier, an intelligent prince. I now see I was clearly mistaken." Hephaestion paused. "You are but a spoiled child who cares for nothing more than his own ego and manipulates reality to fit his mood. You use other's friendship and trust to persuade them to do what you find best without spearing a thought to the consequences that your actions may hold upon others."

Somewhere along that speech, Alexander's desire was overcome by his need of approval and, consequently, by the anger he released upon those who dared to defy his character.

"Who are you to judge me?" The prince roared, erasing any trace of the calm, kind voice he used to apply when conducting a conversation with Hephaestion.

"Enough!" Hephaestion almost yelled, looking Alexander in the eyes only to tell him, "If I never see you again, it will be too soon."

"You know why the gods made you so beautiful?" The strong voice spoke again, refusing to lose any battle. "To cover up all the madness."

Hephaestion's eye twitched slightly before he rushed forward and, in one fast move, punched Alexander in the face. The prince gaped at him for a few seconds before even realizing what had actually happened. No one had ever dared to punch him, ever. And damn, did it hurt.

"I am the son of Philip and by all my lenience with you I will not tolerate being treated like this! I am still your future king and I demand respect." The prince spoke in his most threatening tone as Hephaestion walked away from him, only turning back to say:

"You want to be treated like the heir to the throne? Start acting accordingly." That was a strong blow against Alexander's pride.

Luckily, by then, all their friends were there. The elf and the ogre hurried to help Hephaestion, who was still slightly breathless from the dive. They rushed him to a horse and quickly fled, not sparing another glance at the prince or his friends.

---

Leaonatus sat comfortably in a corner of Alexander's room, feet resting on the desk as he played with a spoon he found laying around. He really liked shiny things.

In the mean time, five pair of eyes watched the prince walking around in his room, only stopping now and then to randomly kick the chair Perdiccas sat on. Not that is was Perdiccas' fault, no. The boy had only chosen a very bad place to sit: in the way of Alexander's fuming.

"How dare he defy me?" He spoke, fervently. "He called me 'spoiled prince'!" Raising his arms in frustration, he spoke, disbelievingly, "He punched me. He actually punched the son of Zeus!"

His friends nodded absently, even thought most of them applauded Hephaestion for his brave, and somewhat lunatic, action. It was astonishing that a simple soldier could withstand Alexander's worst temper without flinching, and it was simply unbelievable how the same man manage to punch him.

"Maybe you should just wait until you're king," Cassander spoke up, ever the helpful one. "then you can just throw him into a room and keep him locked there until he loves you." The others eyed him strangely as he shrugged in his defense.

"I don't want him to love me." Alexander spat with a hateful frown. "I hope he rots away far from me." He then proceeded his previous action, pacing around the room as he rummaged around his brain for someone to blame. Finding the perfect culprit, he froze on the spot, speaking, "Why didn't you warn me about this, Perdiccas? You seem to be friendly enough with the man."

Perdiccas wasn't particularly interested in Alexander's rage, so he simply answered, "I just thought he would be more lenient since you are the prince."

"Obviously, he doesn't care about that. Ruthless little bastard." The prince mumbled, continuing his pacing.

Leonnatus kept twirling a spoon through his finger, eyeing it pensively. He sighed, sitting himself straight. "You _did_ almost successfully murder him." He pointed out, being instantly glared at by the others who were uselessly trying to calm the prince's enraged state.

"What did you say?" Alexander asked, the anger sweeping away from his very soul. Leonnatus fell into deep silence instantly, the spoon falling to the floor in a mute sound.

"The man has a point." Perdiccas interfered, mostly to defend Hephaestion's actions than to avoid Alexander's anger to be directed to Leonnatus.

Perdiccas had been too busy to take part in any of the plotting. However, when the prince returned to the palace angered enough to scare most residents, Perdiccas was called to the rescue. He went to Philotas to hear about the prince, since Ptolemy's answer to the question 'What happened' was 'Macedonia's prince is a masochist who insist in dragging us down with him, that's what happened'. Philotas informed him about all the events as Perdiccas fought very hard not to laugh. However, as soon as the punching the prince part came into the picture, Perdiccas went blank and hurried to Alexander's side in order to avoid Hephaestion's certain death.

"You did took him as granted, manipulated him and utterly ignored his own will to deny you." Perdiccas spoke, his voice not flattering under the prince's cold gaze.

Alexander's glare turned to a frown as he thought it over. He did perform those actions that Perdiccas so attentively decided to remind him of. However, the ends justified the means, as he was sure they would be the ideal couple, designed by the gods themselves.

"Don't get all logical and sane on me right now," He threatened lowly. "You're on my team."

"That's right," Perdiccas nodded his head in agreement, sarcastically adding. "he sucks and he's repulsive, etcetera, etcetera."

"Fine." The prince spat, deciding that if his friends were inconsiderate bastards anyway, he might as well spend some time on his own.

"Where are you going?" Philotas questioned, concern eminent on his voice.

"Somewhere where I'm not surrounded by my inconsiderate friends."

The moment Alexander exited the room, silence took place. Cassander opened his mouth, only to be stopped by Ptolemy's words. "I have a sword and I am not afraid to use it."

"Do you think Alexander will have him killed?" Ptolemy rolled his eyes at Leonnatus' question, asking himself, yet again, why did he even bother.

"I would honestly love to be able to answer that question." Perdiccas whispered in a sad tone, fearing for Hephaestion's destiny.

"Truth be said, he had it coming." Cassander said, a confident look on his face as he waited applause for his wise words, or at least a nod of agreement. All he got was a few looks of mild annoyance.

"We need to keep them away from each other." Perdiccas spoke, a thoughtful look on his face as he kept staring to the floor.

"_We _don't need to do anything." Cassander spat, pointing to Perdiccas. "You, on the other hand, might do whatever you please to keep that devil alive."

"One of these days…" Nearchus spoke, cracking his knuckles and frowning at the man. Cassander gulped, sinking against the wall he was leaning in.

"He does have a point." Leonnatus spoke, honestly as ever. "We have nothing to do with Alexander's decisions."

Nearchus slapped Leonnatus lightly on the head. "If a man who stands up for his honor is wrongfully convicted, we shall fight for his rights." Everybody knew Nearchus had an undeniable passion for justice that sometimes drove the usually peaceful man to a killing spree. So it was better not to contradict him when his vigilante persona happened to emerge.

"I still think you're all trying to get him into bed." Leonnatus spoke, oblivious to the other's occasional violence. Nearchus rolled his eyes, slapping the other man again.

"You really don't learn, do you?" Leonnatus whimpered, turning to glare at him.

"Alexander is walking over dangerous waters, here." Ptolemy spoke aloud, lost on his own thoughts. "If he murders Hephaestion, his father might not contain himself again."

Nearchus nodded. "Murdering a soldier out of nowhere won't be seen with kind eyes."

"All we can do is keep them away from each other." Perdiccas repeated, and then turned to Cassander. "We need to understand there is more than a man's life a stake. Alexander might be exiled for a second time, or worse."

They all nodded in agreement, deciding that keeping them away from each other would be for the best.

Little did they know that, on the other side of the door, Attalus was prying, saying to himself with a smile, "What a loss of great generals will it be when Alexander is exiled for good."

_To be continued..._

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Hi again! (:

This chapter was slightly smaller than I excepted, for some reason. Anyway, I promise I will post Chapter 5 next week (as an Easter present) and it will be at least 5000 words long.

A huge thanks to all my readers & reviewers! :D


	5. Chapter 5

**All that glitters is not gold - Chapter 5**

Philip was in a relatively good mood today, and by 'relatively' I mean as good as one can afford to be when your wife is your greatest enemy and your son refuses to obey you. Disregarding these facts, the king prepared the best impression of a smile he could come up with and made his way towards the dinning room, where a delicious chicken awaited him. On his way there, he found his son sitting on the steps, a cloth resting on his face and covering what seemed to be an ugly bruise.

He frowned as the little voice on his head that, strangely enough, sounded exactly like Parmenion's, spoke to him 'Ask him what happened, he is your son.' It paused. 'Go on now, he could probably use your advice.' The king frowned looking back and forward to the room where the chicken was and back to his son. Sighing, he went ahead and patted his son's shoulder.

"What's the matter, boy?" He asked, in his caring voice. Truth be told, it sounded as caring as roar of a lion sounded like a newborn kitty's cry. "Did you get into a fight?" Alexander simply nodded, startled by his father's concern.

"Did you won?" Philip's conscience slapped its forehead and grumbled its frustration as one simple question ruined all efforts to comfort the boy.

"No one did." The king didn't quite understand the answer, but he didn't ask about it either, feeling it would take the boy forever to explain and fearing that said explanation would involve far too many emotions.

So, he asked the first thing that came to his mind, "Whom did you fight?"

"A soldier." Alexander simply stated, realizing that maybe it was best when his father did not pry into his business.

"A soldier?" He asked, incredulous, resting his hands on his hips. "What soldier had the nerve to stand against a prince?" Alexander panicked inwardly as the king's voice roared. Surely, he did not like Hephaestion, but that didn't mean the man deserved to die.

"Hephaestion." Nonetheless, he did hit him and he did deserve anything that came his way over his actions.

Upon hearing that name, the king's features earned a glow and his frown faded.

"Oh! And how is Hephaestion doing?" He eagerly stated, making Alexander blink disbelievingly.

"Well, he has very good control of his left hand. Strong fist, good speed and an excellent aim." The prince answered, sarcastically. He should have known better than to trust his father's concern.

The older man laughed loudly. "Ah, I bet he's as playful as his old man was." He then turned to Alexander. "You do remember general Armyntor, don't you?"

Alexander frowned. He remembered general Armyntor perfectly. The man always had a playful smile on his face, even though he was ruthless in battle. His own father was very fond of him, dedicating him huge feasts whenever he came to visit.

Coming back to his senses, Alexander asked, "General Armyntor? Hephaestion is his son? But… Armyntor was one of the kindest men I have ever met." All this time, he was convinced that Hephaestion was the devil's spawn.

"Oh, he was." The king nodded. "I am very proud of ever having him as my general. " He paused, raising his eyebrows as he suggested, "Maybe Hephaestion will become an amazing general for you as well."

"From the look of that bruise I'd say it's unlikely." A cold voice spoke, interrupting Alexander's reply. The king turned to the interruption.

"Ah, nonsense, Attalus." He waved the general off, as the man stood closer. "It's a child's game."

"A barbarian's child game, maybe." The cold voice spoke, crossing his arms as he turned a despicable look towards the prince. It was obvious why the man found Alexander repulsive: he was the reason why the general would never be able to reach the throne. Alexander was perfectly aware of the strong hatred the man felt for him, and he returned it with the very same feelings. Still, he was bothered when the man made such blunt comments in plain sight of the king, who did nothing to stop him.

"What was that?" Philip might agree with Attalus, but it was a question of honor to offend one's son in such ways.

"Nothing, my king." He replied. "I was just asking if we could have a meeting now. The materials for the ship just arrived and…"

Alexander frowned as the men walked away, not sparing him another glance. He had heard Attalus' words perfectly, making his hatred grow more and more.

---

The king sighed as he heard Attalus speak about some god-forsaken ship he decided to build, or destroy, or steal, or buy. He wasn't sure, but he didn't care either. His mind was preoccupied with other matters; matters that had not occupied his mind for a long time until his son brought up that name again.

Philip liked pretty girls; he liked pretty boys; he like pretty, shiny gold. As you can see, the King was very fond of anything that was easy on the eyes. Hephaestion was not only easy to the eyes, he was a tribute to them.

The king sighed as he remembered a moment that he affectionately liked to recall as one of the worst mistakes of his life.

It all started when Philip declared he would like to race against Armyntor, to prove the later's quality on horse riding. The general raised an eyebrow, as he was not one of the best horsemen but still not one of the worst.

The king proceeded to explain that the winner would win a favour from the loser. The idea started making sense on Armyntor's head as he realized that everyone in that room owed something to Philip, except him. Not as if he had any other choice, the general politely accepted the challenge.

A few minutes later, the race started. It didn't take long for Philip to get ahead on the race. He was in for a comfortable victory until, as many times before, his ego got in the way. Philip thought, for some reason, it would be astonishingly heroic to just jump of his running horse and walk the rest of the way.

This would have worked out wonderfully had the king been 10 years younger and 50 pounds lighter. As he was not, throwing himself to the ground made the horse go along with him, standing still as he looked at his owner, sitting on the floor and probably wondering whether or not to cut the horse's head off.

Armyntor, presenting the scene and being the ever-kind gentleman, waved at him and laughed all the way to the finish line, where he stood proudly, abiding his king's return. The king took no offense on this action, as his general was known for his playful attitude towards any kind of challenge.

An hour later, they were sitting contentedly, laughing and drinking wine. Philip asked if he had given any thought to what he would wish for. Armyntor nodded.

"I want my son to be able to choose whom he comes eromenos to." The king smirked, his intentions clear.

"Well, of course. I wouldn't have it any other way."

"And that person cannot be you." The general added. Philip chocked on his wine.

The king was a strong, brave man. Many believed he did not think before he acted, that his actions were momentarily decided and that he acted according to his desires only. Armyntor, however, was no fool. He knew Philip did think ahead, years ahead if the situation called for it; his son was one of those situations. The general could see the kind of attention Hephaestion's beauty was bringing to him, even thought he was barely twelve. Most of all, he could see Philip's interest on the boy growing each year, supposedly innocent but tentatively nonetheless.

"Wha-?" Philip started, before getting a hold of himself, coming up with a smart answer. "I'm afraid those are two wishes, my friend."

Armyntor seemed lost on his thoughts for a second. Then, he smiled. "You're right. I choose the second one, then."

Philip cursed silently, thinking of ways to manipulate his way out of this conversation. Distracting himself on the borders of his goblet, he waved it around while talking.

"I'm a very experienced man, I'm sure I could teach your son many things."

"Oh, I'm sure you would." That's why I don't want you anywhere near him. He added, mentally.

The king frowned at nothing in particular, weighting his honour against his desires. He sighed.

"Fine." He grumbled, almost pouting like a little child.

Armyntor laughed, "Don't worry, you have plenty of boys to choose from."

"Yes, yes." Philip mumbled, waving him off.

"Is there something troubling, your highness?" Philip's memories where interrupted as Attalus spoke, his tone barely giving away his annoyance for being ignored.

Philip quickly composed himself, remembering to look attentive in order to avoid a restart of Attalus' monotonous speech. "Not at all. I was just considering how Hephaestion has so much potential that is being wasted away as a simple soldier."

Attalus smiled, despite himself, finding a perfect opportunity for a scheme. He neatly rested the scroll he was reading from on the table. "Can I make a suggestion that you won't like?"

"Do you make any other kind?" Philip asked, not giving any actual thought to that phrase. Luckily, Attalus' ego was large enough to protect him from such disrespects, so he kept on going.

"Make Hephaestion become Alexander's personal guard." The king frowned immideatly after hearing those words.

"No!" His strong voice replied. "I like the boy, why would I torture him like that?" Attalus raised an eyebrow.

"I can't imagine your son weeping from having an attractive guard following him around." He spoke, again not being able to hold back the disgust that dripped of his words every time he mentioned the heir to the throne.

"I wasn't talking about him. I was talking about the Armyntor boy!" The king said in the same indignant tone.

"Your son needs a guard that's able to put his feet on the ground. His so-called friends do nothing but pamper him with all he asks, destroying him as a future king."

Obviously, Attalus spoke none of this in the benefit of Alexander. He had overheard the boy's friends talking about how much they despised each other, finding a great opportunity to torture the prince who stood on the way of his nephew reaching the throne. Maybe Alexander would murder Hephaestion, enraging Philip enough so that he would disown him. Maybe the boys would kill each other. Such wonderful possibilities had to have their chance to happen.

"You know what, Attalus? That is actually a good idea you had there." The king spoke, making the general glow with pride. "You should have more of those." Attalus features instantly turned to a frown, inwardly cursing the king for his disrespect. Ah, the things he had to put through just to obtain power.

---

A few days later, King Philip decided it was time to break the news to his son. The man took pride on waiting those days for Alexander's wound to fade away, which was as far as he would ever go as a caring father.

The fact that Philip had unexpectedly summoned his son earned the attention of everyone at the palace, all of whom knew that every time this happened, a fascinating clash of ideals took place. To understand the interest, take in account the lack of entertainment these people had.

The king sat on his throne, surrounded by servants, with his son standing before him. The future companions stood by the door with some other soldiers, all of them fearing for Alexander's destiny. Parmenion came as well, but mostly to avoid any unnecessary harm being done. He was, after all, the king's excuse for a conscience.

"Who are those boys, son?" Philip spoke, pointing out his friends. The young men exchanged worried glances, but were still able to maintain their posture.

"My friends, father." Alexander answered, confused. He knew for a fact that his father couldn't care less about his son's social life as long as it involved nobles, so coming as far as to ask about them was uncomfortably atypical.

The king nodded at his answer, petting his beard with interest. "Not your guards?" He suggested.

"They work as such but they have other duties."

As the conversation unfolded, Alexander could feel the cold sweat running down his spine; it was never a good sign when the king combed his facial hair.

"I was under the impression that it's common royal practice for a prince to have a guard?" He added, a rare look of interest on his face or, on Alexander's point of view, another reason to fear what was to come.

"Opinion is divided on the subject." The prince said, keeping his voice steady.

Alexander was a man of outstanding courage: he could tame a horse at 12, he could put up with every last one of his mother's snakes and, if needed, he would stand against an entire army, alone. However, he was an undeniable - for lack of better word - wimp, when it came to dealing with his father. King Philip was a terrifying man, no one can deny it. Everyone with any shred of survival instincts knew that it was better to stay the hell away from him. Alexander, however, had a different kind of fear: the fear of disappointing him.

Every time this kind of conversation took place, the kind that involved countless questions, Alexander was able to find some sort of reprimand in each and every one of his father's words. It made him miserable as it builds him stronger.

"Send him in." The king spoke to one of the guards standing at the main door, who bowed and made way for another man to come. As the figure approach with confident steps, Alexander recognized the soldier who, the last time they met, gave him an exceptionally large black eye.

"What is he doing here?" The prince asked, not taking his eyes from Hephaestion, who in return kept his emotionless stand.

"Isn't it evident?" The king paused and then beamed proudly. "Hephaestion will become your personal guard."

Both young men froze on the spot. Obviously, Hephaestion was summoned with no knowledge of the king's plan. The information was so sudden that neither of them could avoid asking loudly and in unison, "What?"

Alexander looked around, in desperate need for support or some clue that this was nothing but a practical joke. Still, everyone present in the room seemed to be as surprised as he was; Parmenion stared at the king, probably wondering where this was going; his own companions muttered between them at the other end of the room and Hephaestion looked as if he would rather enjoy dying right now.

"Oh, I see you are both pleased. My work here is done." Philip said, turning to both his sides, searching for his servants. "Now, where is that wine?" As the initial shock passed, Alexander dedicated his ingenious brain to come with a thousand reasons for why this was the worst idea his father had ever revealed. By the look of the Hephaestion, he was committing himself to the same cause.

"You're appointing him as my personal guard?! I still have bruises from our last encounter. I'd be safer with a Persian!" Alexander pointed out.

"That's-" Hephaestion started, stopping himself when he noticed that the prince was probably right about this; there was perhaps no Persian, or any man for that matter, capable feeling half the hate he held for Alexander.

"Nonsense, boy." Philip waved him off as he reached for a goblet of wine one of his servants was handing him. "There is hardly anyone more capable than Hephaestion to keep your feet on the ground and your mind on the matter." He glared at the young men standing on the other end of the room, whose eyes filled with concern the moment they felt the king's attention upon them. "Those minions of yours are useless. You need someone who is able to think on his own."

"I thank you for the honor, sire, but my training-" He turned to Hephaestion, who had spoken, his glare fading away.

"Ah, of course, always so dedicated. You'll continue your training with Alexander, since he has to attend it everyday." He spoke the last part as some kind of threat, obviously due to his son's fixation on avoiding every practice he could manage to. "His teacher might be slightly rougher than what you're used to, other than that there won't be any disparities."

The horror just seemed to add up.

"And Hephaestion, my boy, with this task you are one-step closer to becoming an excellent general, one day." Said young man just stood there, seemingly having an internal battle between his goals and his spite for the prince. The later was losing shamelessly.

Alexander rolled his eyes when he noticed how Hepheastion seemed to have suffered a sudden change of heart immediately after hearing the word 'general'.

"Cheap bastard." He mumbled to himself.

Hephaestion sighed and worked up a smile, "It will be an honor to serve the prince, your highness." He spoke, kindly, adding a special tone of malice on the word 'serve' that no one seemed to notice, except Alexander.

Philip raised from his throne, coming near Hephaestion to lightly pat his back, a proud smile on his face.

"Very well then, you are dismissed." Hephaestion bowed slightly, making his way to the door, followed by Alexander and all others besides Parmenion.

On the way out, Cassander mumbled to his friends, "And down goes the 'keep them apart' theory." They all sighed, agreeing, for once, that Cassander was right.

The king sat comfortably on his throne, a satisfied grin on his face due to the success of his latest scheme. Parmenion, however, did not seem so pleased.

"Philip, are you appointing Hephaestion as a royal guard in order to inflict torment upon your son?"

"No, that's just a additional benefit." The king spoke, proudly, as the other frowned, folding his arms.

Philip's mood changed drastically to irritation as the man launched his defense speech. "Do not adjudicate me. The boy spends all his time thinking of innovational ways to defy me. With Hephaestion around he will have several new concerns."

The general was yet to be convinced.

"Besides, the boy is quite a sight. Doesn't hurt to have him around, does it?" Parmenion would have rolled his eyes and slapped his forehead if he wasn't standing before one of the most powerful men on earth. Since he was, he simply sighed and performed his work as an advisor to the king.

"These schemes of yours usually come back around in the most dreadful ways imaginable."

"Nonsense." Philip dismissed him as an old fool, unaware that Parmenion's words weren't far from the future that came ahead.

Only this time, what was actually Attalus' scheme, set in motion the chain of events that led to something much powerful than any of them could possibly envision.

Something that would prevail forever, unchanged by time or death itself.

--

Outside the throne room, two young men walked hurriedly near each other.

"I should have known that you would sell your beliefs for less than nothing." Alexander hissed, walking at a faster pace to reach Hephaestion.

"Nothing?" Hephaestion repeated in anger, stopping suddenly and turning his attentions to the prince. "The remote possibility of becoming a general it's what I've been working for my whole life. I refuse to throw it away due to my assignment's stubbornness and reckless, lustful behavior."

At every word that left Hephaestion's mouth, Alexander's anger grew hastily.

"Who do you think you are, you-" His words were interrupted by the presence of Perdiccas who quickly stepped between them. Abandoned by all of the other prince's companions who believed they were too young to die, Perdiccas had adventured himself alone in the unknown, dangerous grounds that stood between those two angry men.

"What's happening here?" He asked, even thought he was pretty certain of what the answer would be.

"Nothing." Alexander spat out through grinded teeth, refusing to release his locked glare with Hephaestion.

Perdiccas rolled his eyes at their behavior. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he spoke to both of them. "I beg you, behave. If you don't, there will be harsh consequences."

No one moved. Perdiccas frowned, understanding that asking those two not to fight with each other was like requesting a group of starving lions to avoid eating the immobile, fat gazelle standing in front of them. Useless, and an action that would most likely get him killed on the process.

Once they both conceded to Perdiccas's orders, looking away from each other, the man breathed out in relief.

"You better discuss this as two responsible adults and adjust to the idea that you will be spending an awful amount of time together." As always, good advice is certain to be ignored.

"I won't discuss anything with him." Hephaestion said, turning only slightly to facilitate the glaring process.

"I won't talk to him at all." Alexander answered, a victorious smile on his face to congratulate himself for the clever comeback.

Perdiccas, again, rolled his eyes at their behavior. He was pretty sure that, had the fight progressed, they would be sticking their tongues out to each other or claiming they would call their fathers to solve the situation. The soldier would very much prefer to leave before this predicament came to evolve as he feared.

"I'm leaving. Don't kill each other." He spoke, praying to the gods that at least a small part of the information would pierce through those thick skulls of theirs. It didn't.

"I'm as enthusiastic about this idea as you are, prince Alexander." Alexander opened his mouth to speak but Hephaestion beat him to it. "Yet, this is my one chance to become a general and I won't let you ruin it, so you better keep yourself alive while you're under my care." Alexander stared in awestruck silence at the man as he walked away. How he loaded that pompous creature.

---

Alexander was furious. This newly appointed guard was burning every last shred of patience he managed to come up with just by existing. It's bad enough to hate someone who is outrageously perfect, it's even worse when that person punches you in the face, gets away laughing and earns a promotion.

When all this hate began boiling inside his soul, he did as all mentally balanced people do when faced with this kind of situations: he found someone weaker to blame. And who would be a better escape goat than his very own friends? After all, he knew that, somewhere along this story, his over-talking guards let the information of his misunderstanding with Hephaestion slip.

Currently, the prince was dashing angrily through the halls, eagerly searching for his doomed friends. Eventually, he ran into Leonnatus who, as usually, had a good-natured smile on his face as he prepared to greet the prince.

However, upon seeing the anger that emanated from Alexander's very soul, Leonnatus's eyes grew exponentially.

---

A scream was heard outside the room Alexander's friends were currently in, distractedly talking about the king's brilliant idea that would certainly end up soon, most likely with the death of one of them.

"Did you hear that?" Ptolemy asked, concerned over the agonizing sound. The others shrugged, not particularly caring about a sound that was not that uncommon among the palace's rooms, mainly due to some poor guest stumbling over one of the queen's reptiles. "It sounded like Leonnatus."

"It sure did." Nearchus answered distractedly, meticulously examining the sword he was cleaning.

"Don't you care for anybody?" Ptolemy spoke at his friends, disbelievingly.

Nearchus shrugged, still planning to be able to see his own reflection on the sword. "He always screams for no reason." It wasn't exactly for 'no reason', but this was no time for details.

Suddenly, Leonnatus past by running as if his life depended on it, only having time to yell, "Help!" before dashing down the hall with Alexander close behind.

"Does he always run like that too?" Ptolemy asked, turning to Nearchus.

"Was that Alexander?" Philotas asked, leaning outside the door to see what happened. The two other men were nowhere in sight, which wasn't surprising considering how fast they were going.

The future companions exchanged worried glances.

"Why is he chasing Leonnatus?" Philotas asked, and then paused. "He couldn't possibly be blaming us for his father's actions, could he?" Again, they exchanged worried glances as they shared the same thought: yes, Alexander could perfectly well blame them for something they didn't do, but only if they were remotely connected with the cause of it, which they were.

After a few seconds of quiet, Cassander perhaps thought he needed to break the uncomfortable silence with a painful observation. "Maybe he wants to kill us."

Ptolemy laughed nervously. "He won't do that." The soldier said, working his best to fill those words with determination. "He's just a nice, simple man, who wants nothing but justice."

They nodded in unison at Ptolemy's words, who then suggested, "Let's stay close to the guards just in case."

---

Leonnatus ran and ran, until he could barely feel his legs. After running for two hours, the man realized that he could do nothing against Alexander's determination, so the best thing to do was to hide until the prince's anger turned to some other innocent victim who made the unfortunate action of standing on his way. He still thanked the gods for the extra two hours of life he earned, mostly because, even though Alexander was a better runner, he was only driven by anger. Leonnatus was driven by fear.

They reached a hallway that was unusually dark and silent, but Leonnatus didn't care. He threw himself at the first door he found, closing it swiftly behind him. After a few seconds had passed, the soldier breathed out, thinking that Alexander had gotten bored or hungry. Earning back his senses, he looked around the dark room that was only illuminated by a few torches held against the wall. In the current darkness, the soldier could barely see anything other than a few seats and a human sized statue of Dionysus, god of wine.

"Who dares to enter my chambers?" A dark, silky voice echoed through the room. Leonnatus froze on the spot, his blood running cold as he noticed the shadow on the other side of the room.

"Q-queen Olympias!" He shrieked, immediately throwing himself to the ground in one sloppy bow.

"Son of Anteas." She spoke in a slightly curious, yet merciless, tone. "Do you have a death wish?" The picturesque woman came out of the shadows, a snake resting on her shoulders and many others following her. There was something about her presence that made others tremble in fear just by a shear look; she was unquestionably beautiful and undeniably deadly.

"Your highness, I-" The man's tongue was seemingly gone the moment that a few snakes approached them, dancing as they made their way to his flesh.

"Excuse me, mother." A voice interrupted behind Leonnatus, making him breath out in relief even though he wasn't sure whether it was better to die by the hands of the prince or his mother.

"Alexander." It was amazing how her aura changed the moment her son stepped into the room. Her empty eyes earned an almost imperceptible shine and her body gave away her calmness; it didn't make her less deadly, but it certainly made her more human.

"One of your pets drifted away from home." She spoke, looking down at Leonnatus, who swallowed.

"He didn't." The prince gently offered. "He came to meet you." Queen Olympias stared curiously at the lowly creature surrounded by her own pets.

"Is that true?" She asked. Leonnatus nodded absently. His father had once warned him it was fundamental to never contradict crazy people.

"He always felt mesmerized by your snakes." Still kneeled on the floor, Leonnatus' fear grew.

"Mesmerized, you say?" The queen replied as the enchanting reptiles kept approaching the kneeling man, who trembled slightly when the animal's cold skin made contact with his own. "Doesn't seem like it."

Leonnatus thought that everything about this had to come from the king's worst nightmares; trapped between murderous snakes, the queen and her son.

"You're presence weakens the strongest men, mother." Alexander spoke with a charming smile, making his mother glow with pride.

"I suppose so. We'll see how he does in the chamber." At the last word, Leonnatus flinched, cursing himself for not staying in bed this morning.

"Thank you mother." He approached her, kissing her lightly on the cheek and then whispering, "Please, do not kill him." Olimpyas eyed Leonnatus as if he was a prey, so the prince added, "Philip is not very fond of him." That was all it took for guaranteeing the kneeling man's life.

---

In the meantime, the future companions roamed through the halls in search of their unfortunate friend. The delay was mostly due to the process of summing up courage to stand against a temperamental prince.

"I still think we shouldn't have left the room." Cassander mumbled, dragging his feet along the floor. Ptolemy didn't pay him much mind, opening some doors to find Leonnatus.

"Leonnatus needs our help." Ptolemy stated, distractedly. "If it's against your wishes to help a friend, leave." This was all Cassander needed to hear.

"Alright." He spoke, immediately turning around. Before he could escape, Nearchus grabbed him by the neck.

"No, you won't." The bigger man spoke, making Cassander roll his eyes, opening his mouth to throw a witty comment. He stopped himself when he noticed that all his friends had ceased their quest, nervously staring at a very angry prince that came out of nowhere and now stood before them.

Philotas was the unfortunate soul that stood in the front row, so Alexander glared at him. Cold sweat dripped down Philotas' face as he looked around for support. Since Ptolemy made the rooky mistake of standing too close, he was pushed forward by Philotas to face Alexander. The prince raised an eyebrow at the desperate attempt to create a shield. He didn't care if Ptolemy was his half-brother. If he was killing someone he was killing them all, and that included Ptolemy! Alexander didn't do half-ass jobs.

However, as Ptolemy's concerned eyes stared back at him, Alexander couldn't help but wonder whether it would be best to let them live. After all, he had already punished one of them, and he would doubtlessly need the others in order to run from Hephaestion. Still, a modest reprimand wouldn't hurt.

---

"Cleitus!" Came the prince's voice as he, again, threw the door to Cleitus' working room open.

The man who had previously been sleeping, shot up on his seat, turning everywhere as he fought to organize the scrolls resting on his table. "Wha-? I'm awake, I'm awake!" He spoke, until he noticed the only one watching him, with an amused smile, was Alexander. He waited a few seconds just to be sure, but Parmenion didn't seem to be anywhere in sight. Cleitus breathed out in relief since the last time he was caught, Parmenion had put him on a vegetable-only diet. The old man had also threatened that, if there was a next time, he would be sex-less for a week. No need to say, Cleitus would rather die.

"Oh, it's you." He tended to lose his manners after being roughly awakened. "Come back later, I'm busy." By then, he was already back to his comfy pillow of scrolls, which he had neatly arranged during his boredom. Alexander wasn't bothered by the lack of respect for his authority; Cleitus could be like this with everyone. Once, when drunk, he insisted that King Philip would give him a piggyback ride to his room. Philip was so entertained by this, he forced some servants to carry the man to bed as he had asked.

"I can see that." Alexander spoke, his mood improving much due to the officer's antics. "I brought you a gift, but if you don't-" Over the word 'gift', Alexander could almost see Cleitus' ears perk up as some kind of wild animal.

"Is it boys?" He asked in a low, curious tone. He had only opened one eye and his head still rested upon the scrolls.

"How did you guess?" As these words left the prince's mouth, Cleitus instantly got up, a satisfied grin on his face. Alexander stepped aside to show Cleitus his very disappointing prize.

The man's eager grin turned into a frown as he asked, "Are there quality boys hiding behind those ones?" The prince's friends glares were immediately ignored by the officer who looked everywhere in search of his boys.

"No, this is what you get." Alexander spoke with his arms crossed. "They'll help you with that paper work, nothing more. Do you understand?"

Cleitus shrugged, uninterested. "I would only trade them for other boys." He spoke, innocently.

Alexander rolled his eyes, turning to his friends. "Don't let him push you around and remember: this torture is just for one day and you had it coming." His friends just glared. "I'm glad you're happy." The prince exited the room, waving with a satisfied smile gracing his features.

Philotas went near Cleitus, figuring the sooner they started, the quicker this charade would be over. "What scrolls have you finished signing?" He asked, searching through the pile for the finished ones.

Cleitus seemed shocked as he asked, "I'm supposed to sign them?"

This was certainly going to take longer than they expected.

_To be continued..._

* * *

Here it is, your Easter present! :D Would love to stay, chat and reply to reviews but I have to go find eggs...

Reviews will, again, be highly appreciated. (:


	6. Chapter 6

**All that glitters is not gold - Chapter 6**

Hephaestion sat on his bed, thinking over yesterday's events. How was he supposed to guard a man he despised with every fiber of his being? A man who tried to murder him, for heaven's sake. And that he punched and offended, repeatedly. He growled in frustration, throwing himself back on the bed. He wondered how lucky he was for still breathing and how he had been pushing his luck these last few days.

Argeus stepped into the tent, questioning Hephaestion with his eyes. Hephaestion smiled at him, sitting himself straight and patting the free space next to him for the other to sit. Argeus did as he was told, holding out a plate with breakfast for Hephaestion to take.

"Have you heard the splendid news?" The recently appointed guard spoke, sarcasm dripping off his words. Argeus nodded, then spoke in a low, monotone voice that was proper of him.

"The men under your command have been discussing it. They are very disappointed about losing you." Hephaestion snorted, shaking his head.

"Some of them might be."

"You underestimate your men too much." The soldier pointed out kindly. "They care for you but not for the reasons most people do."

"I suppose. They were my first command, I probably messed up some of the orders I gave them." Hephaestion's head hanged low as he spoke those words in light embarrassment.

"They know you are human." Argeus paused, searching for a good example. "Don't you care for Perdiccas?" Hephaestion raised his head slightly, a questioning look on his face as he nodded. "You were part of his first troops and he did give you imprudent orders many times."

"He did." Hephaestion recalled those moments fondly. The time Perdiccas insisted that they took an unknown path, claiming it was faster, eventually turning a two-day trip into a week-long journey. There was also that time he invented new training exercises that almost drowned half the army. Ah, good times indeed.

Argeus had a point there. If he, a man that distrusted anyone, could become friends with a superior that almost killed them all, his soldiers could definitely care for him. This theory could also be applied in other troubling matters such as becoming the prince's guard. He cherished Perdiccas, even though he almost killed him at least twice, maybe he could come to care for the prince as well. It was unlikely, but it could happen.

Their conversation was interrupted as a head peaked in the tent. It was Philotas, looking relieved as he spotted them on the other end.

"Joy to you, Hephaestion and… and…" As no one bothered to provide the man's name, Philotas went on. "I've come only to escort prince Alexander to your tent, Hephaestion."

"Come, my lord." Philotas spoke firmly, making Alexander enter the tent. Hephaestion could tell by his stony expression and rigid frame that he was dragged here kicking and screaming.

"What are you doing here? I was told my task was to be started this afternoon." He blurted out suddenly, forgetting the formalities. He noticed the mistake when Philotas frowned and Alexander's scold became bigger. He promptly added, "my lord."

Alexander sighed, deciding he had better things to worry about than the formalities the creep forgot to add. "Father thought it would be an enlightening experience to spend the day with you on the training grounds."

Hephaestion raised an elegant eyebrow, refusing to look at the prince and instead staring at Philotas. "We would be spending the afternoon on his training grounds." The man spoke stoically even though inwardly he was screaming like an excited little girl for his chance to finally meet the greatest teacher of all time or, if you prefer, the most cold, sadistic, twisted bastard ever to be given the honor of being called a teacher, or a human being at all.

Hephaestion's stare made a not that unpleasant chill run down Philotas' spine who, feeling something in him gain a life of it's own, burned in deep scarlet before mumbling as he stared at the floor, "I-I'll leave that for the prince to explain. I have really urgent matters to attend to." Philotas seriously didn't have much of a better explanation for the fact that he was a healthy man with a very active imagination and a libido that could maintain life on earth on it's own.

Alexander did not notice this incident. He did notice, however, that Philotas was ditching him. The prince gazed coldly at the man he used to call a friend, his expression clearly stating that if Philotas thought yesterday's punishment was bad, he should wait and see what would happen to his petty neck once Alexander got his hands on it. This look did not went unnoticed by the prince's future victim who, weighing his options, very much preferred to die by the hands of Alexander than to wait for his destiny once Hephaestion spotted the slight growth on his chiton.

Philotas bowed very quickly at his prince, both to ask forgiveness and to wish good luck in a discrete way. He hurried out of the tent, leaving two curious soldiers and a very infuriated prince behind. Said prince took a deep breath before returning his attention to his guard.

"The king expects me to understand your task within this army. He says it will help me reevaluate your worth." Alexander spat those last words, his fist clenched to avoid doing something that he would probably not regret.

"My worth?" Hephaestion questioned, mostly to himself as he fought to understand exactly what those words meant.

"My feelings exactly." Alexander spoke, a smug smile on his face as he had clearly caught Hephaestion unguarded with his witty comment.

Hephaestion's eyes showed pure hatred for a split of a second before he took a hold of himself. Taking a relaxing breath, he spoke, "Fine. I'll get prepared, wait here your highness."

"Wha-" Alexander started but the other man ignored him, turning to face Argeus. The prince was by all accounts a very brave man, but his slightly dulled survival instincts insisted that it was probably not the best of ideas to be left alone with a friend of the man he had clearly insulted a few seconds ago, who happened to be twice his size and not bear a quite friendly nature.

"Would you watch over him?" Hephaestion asked Argeus, completely ignoring the prince's look of indignation for being treated like a child. "I'll be back in a few minutes." He spoke after receiving a nod from Argeus, who then turned his attention to the prince even though he didn't move an inch from the place he was standing.

After a few minutes Alexander's ingenious brain figured that if he had to be stuck in an awkward silence with the half man, half bear, he might as well learn some embracing information about Hephaestion to be used later as black mail. "Hm, so… You're under Hephaestion's command?"

Argeus head moved slightly in such a discrete way that Alexander wasn't even sure the nod happened. "So you follow him freely?" He tried again, making Argeus impatience grow.

"Yes, your highness." He answered in a monotone voice that Alexander took a kew to keep his mouth shut.

"Alright then." He answered, looking anywhere but at the talking bear. Hephaestion emerged a while later, motioning for Alexander to follow him. The prince gladly obeyed, rushing discreetly after the other.

"Leave me alone in the tent with the titan, that really increases your worth as a guard." Alexander spoke as soon as he reached Hephaestion's side. The guard stopped abruptly on his tracks and turned to face the other with a glare.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Alexander asked in a disbelieving tone. He was glaring at him. He had barely even spent five minutes with the man and the violent lunatic was already glaring at him.

"The man you so disrespectfully like to call by 'titan' has a name." He took a step closer but the prince did not move an inch, unconsciously because standing close to Hephaestion was truly pleasant, but mainly because he was getting used to the man's anger. "It's Argeus and he is a very kind man who dreams of becoming a doctor one day."

"Well, pardon me. I thought 'titan' was actually an endearing epithet." Alexander spoke distractedly, sarcasm dripping of his words.

Hephaistion stood still, eyes slightly narrowed as he continued to stare at the prince. He was not expecting this answer at all. Most people would openly mock his friend's dream, claiming that a man of such stature could not be of any other use to the kingdom than to serve as a soldier. Alexander, however, didn't seem to think it was unusual at all. The man who he thought was nothing but shallow and egoistical was the one person besides himself to accept Argeus' dream.

'Maybe I'm the shallow one who cannot see past his title.' Hephaestion thought as his features turned from pure anger to slight regret.

The prince stood quietly as his guard seemed to be experiencing an internal battle. He dared no to move seeing as the man was unpredictable to say the least; one moment he seemed ready to beat him to a bloody pulp and in the other he looked like a simple soldier who had deep respect for his prince. Well, the last one was a rare sight that might be only an illusion of Alexander's, but he was quite sure he had seen it somewhere. The prince's own musings where interrupted by the guards words,

"Don't you find it an unusual trade for a man of his stature?" Hephaestion spoke, testing his theory. Alexander didn't quite understand where this was going so he gave the honest answer.

"Well, he could scare people into following his recommendations. I'd say if Philip were more like him I'd be inclined to stay in bed when told instead of sneaking through the room's window at every chance I got." Realizing his words, he quickly stated. "But I don't do that anymore."

Hephaestion's expression was a mixture of feelings he did not quite understand, nor did Alexander whom, assuming the other man's silent couldn't mean anything good, decided to state:

"But he is better off as a soldier." The other's eyes light up instantly.

"I knew you couldn't see past appearances!" Hephaestion's tone gave away an excitement for being right that wasn't supposed to show.

Alexander's momentary confusion was quickly replaced with anger. "Why do you insist on judging me? It's like you were expecting me to fail."

Hephaestion was at a loss of words again, something that used be very atypical for him until he met this man. Both of them were used to reading people easily since most of them expected the same: to please Alexander and to court Hephaestion. Feeling or being hated was unfamiliar for both of them, so much that they were not sure how to cope with it.

"I understand that he has a right to dream as any of us. However, I've come to acknowledge that doctors are incredibly overrated as their work rarely gets the expected results. A man of his constitution is a great leverage for the army. Doctors postpone the inevitable. Soldiers build empires. They both have their worth, even thought that worth is not acknowledge in the same dimensions." Alexander spoke in a powerful tone with the pose of true royalty. He kept his eyes on Hephaestion during the whole speech as if there was nothing else in the world but the topic they were discussing. He went straight to the point, did not raise his voice nor did he spoke ill of anyone. The man was truly well educated in the art of rhetoric.

'So what?' Hephaestion's pride shouted in his head. 'I know many people who have their way with words and I am most certainly not impressed by this nor will it change my opinion of this self-centered prince.' To this, Hephaestion's common sense slapped its imaginary forehead and mumbled something about Egypt and the Nile.

Deciding this was a matter that would be better left to rest, Hephaestion turned and started to walk away.

"Hey!" Alexander called out, racing to reach the other's side. "What are you doing?"

"Walking." The prince rolled his eyes at the answer.

"Did you change your opinion about me?" He spoke, tentatively. His speech couldn't have failed, it never did. Talking to people and getting them to do what he wanted was one of his many gifts, and it worked every time. Except with Hephaestion, this man is a whole other matter and he needed to fix that right away.

"Maybe." Hephaestion conceded, staring straight ahead as Alexander fought for eye contact.

"Aren't you going to apologize?"

"No." Hephaestion knew he was being stubborn and idiotically childish but he couldn't help it, the prince just got into his nerves way too much to give away his defeat. He was glad that Alexander seemed to be exactly the same as he crossed his arms and pouted.

"Are you… pouting?" The guard asked, not quite believing his eyes. Alexander cheeks earned a barely visible red coloration.

"I'm a man. I don't pout, I broad." Hephaestion blinked then smirked, shacking his head as he kept walking away.

As the sun rose, the camp earned life; soldiers were hurriedly strapping their belts, others were still stretching outside their tents, oblivious to the high-ranking officer that walked among them. Hephaestion and Alexander walked together for a while and a few minutes later they were standing before a rather large tent. Hephaestion motioned for the prince to wait for his call as he quietly stepped inside.

"Lord Armyntor!" One of the men spoke loudly, making all others turn and raise themselves from their chairs in sign of respect. There were chairs and tables spread around this tent where many soldiers where busy reading maps or performing other shores. All of these men used to be Hephaestion's responsibility even though many of them were older than him.

"Joy to you, my friends." Hephaestion spoke with a wide smile. He felt comfortable among these soldiers and today he felt a particularly relief in being with them, a relief that granted him more confidence to deal with the prince. The older soldiers smile in compassion for the eminent relief he found in being with them; they understood how he felt out of his element being a guard. The younger ones didn't read anything into that smile aside from the fact that it made their superior looked even more striking that he usually did. They all fought back a strong blush that firmly attempted to take over their features.

Hephaestion called out and Alexander walked inside in all his almighty glory. In a perfectly choreographed move, all men bowed, greeting their prince.

What Hephaestion was not expecting was the behavior that appeared then. All his men rushed forward to great the prince personally but, even more surprising than this behavior, was how they all seem to share some kind of story together. This was because Alexander had been brought up on the army and his open mind towards others made him loved, which was something Hephaestion was yet to learn about him.

"How are you all doing?" Alexander asked once their men surrounded him and Hephaestion.

"You might have heard that our captain was stolen away by royalty, your highness." One of them spoke, a teasing smile on his face as he discreetly accused Alexander. The later snorted, thinking how he would have loved to be able to give his guard back to those who wanted him.

"Missing me already?" Hephaestion asked in the same teasing tone. He then smiled genuinely and spoke, "You will do fine. Argeus is very competent."

"He's not you, my lord." One of the younger men blurted out. They all turned towards him, making the poor boy earn a reddish coloration on his features.

"See? They've been this insolent ever since you left." Spoke one of the older soldiers, slapping the younger one's head lightly.

"Which happened yesterday." Hephaestion supplied, hands on his hips as he raised a curious eyebrow.

The older soldier shrugged. "Yesterday was more than enough to see that these youngsters only do half the work once you're not here to watch them."

"Is that true?" Hephaestion questioned as the young ones exchanged shameful glances. The young man who had spoken nodded lightly. "I demand proper answer, Myrcinus." The guard spoke harshly, earning a flinch from the boy. Alexander looked from one to another, as he thought Hephaestion was finally showing his ruthless true nature. The other, however, didn't seem moved at all. They simply smiled as if they had this happen many times before, knowing how this conversation would end.

"Yes, my lord." Hephaestion breathed out in exasperation, reaching forward to pat the boy's head lightly. Then, he pointed at Alexander.

"Do you know this man?" Alexander and the boy blinked, both staring at Hephaestion and wondering where this conversation might lead.

"Y-yes, he's prince Alexander." He spoke, eyes fixated on the floor. Hephaestion gently raised the boy's head by the chin, staring with his deep blue eyes. It was hard to imagine someone burn in such red as the boy was right now.

"You do not follow me. You follow him and his father. It does not matter whether it's me or Argeus who trains you, you will always be following them and that is all that matters." Alexander watched Hephaestion intently, realizing that the man was indeed quite devoted to royalty, even though he rarely let it show. He felt somewhat more relieved now that he understood the guard's respect that was quite unusual, but it existed.

The boy kept staring, his heart gave him the feeling that it would jump out of his chest at any moment. "Will you make me proud, Myrcinus?" Feeling Hephaestion's touch fade, the boy nodded furiously with the most determined look on his face.

"Yes, Lord Armyntor. I will not let you down! I'll train until I can't stand, just watch." He then ran out the tent, leaving the soldiers to stare at nowhere.

One of the older soldiers interrupted the silence with a chuckle and then spoke, "If you just do that a few more thousand times we'll have a very committed army, don't you think, your highness?" Alexander, who had curiously watched this whole matter, snorted.

"I think you'll manage fine without his proficiency."

The soldiers ignored the sarcastic tone, one or two suggesting, "You could share him with us, your highness."

"I'm very possessive about my belongings." Alexander stared at Hephaestion with a smirk, his words obviously intended on upsetting the other for being treated like a mere object. However, all the people in that room but those two read this words in an entirely different form, blushing furiously as they all assumed that their superior had been taken by the prince in a more intimate aspect.

'Maybe your belonging will choke you in your sleep.' The guard was about to hiss but he stopped himself in time. No matter how much he disliked the other man, he was still his superior and should be respected as such, especially in front of part of his army.

Alexander stared at Hephaestion with a proud smirk. Hephaestion stared at Alexander with a dark glare. The other men exchanged worried glances as they realized they had clearly misunderstood the prince's words.

The dark silence was interrupted by a rather pleased voice, "Your highness! To what do we owe the pleasure?" Iphicrates, the man he had last seen at the market on the day he met Hephaestion, came rushing to Alexander.

"Iphicrates, how have you been doing?" The prince spoke, his voice kind but firm as pure royalty. Iphicrates was about to answer when he noticed the man standing next to the prince, namely Hephaestion. He looked at one, then at another, wondering if the prince had actually managed to tame him. Hephaestion immediately perceived his silent question, simply stating a quick explanation about how he became the prince's guard. The man seemed slightly disappointed that even the prince had not succeeded, but he left the matter behind.

"I'm under Cleitus training now." Iphicrates stated once they started talking about the newest happenings inside the army. "You certainly heard about how General Parmenion learned about Cleitus' small misunderstanding with his paper work. As such, he has not been around these last few days." He paused, laughed, then continued. "If it weren't for that, Cleitus would have turned this into a 72 hour training and have everyone fight until they puke blood."

He laughed again, silencing himself once he noticed that only Alexander was smiling while all the others were staring behind him with very surprised expressions. Iphicrates, in fear of what he might find, did not turn around. He simply prayed that whatever was behind him was not Cleitus. His fear was confirmed when he felt a strong hand rest on his left shoulder, and a commanding voice utter behind him,

"Aren't you a funny lad."

"S-Sir." He said, turning around and flinching slightly. Cleitus smiled widely at him, his teeth showing only to prove to Iphicrates that today he would suffer greatly.

"Let's see how that suggestion works out for you, shall we?" Cleitus picked the man by the collar and dragged him away under the watch of a great number of spectators, all of which didn't dare to move a muscle just to avoid having the man's infuriation turned on them.

Alexander, finding it to be his duty to prevent unnecessary killings of what one-day would be his army, spoke up. "Cleitus, be kind to Iphicrates. He was only speaking his mind." The man stopped on his tracks, turning to look at his poor victim who just kept his eyes closed and expected the worse. Then, he turned to face the prince who raised his eyebrows in impatience.

Even though he didn't act like it, Cleitus hold great respect and admiration for the heir to the throne. The prince was intelligent, charming and good looking, which given his love for boys couldn't hurt. However, what Cleitus would never admit was that beyond all this characteristics, what really earned his admiration was Alexander's big heart that seemed to be greater than Earth itself. The man understood people sometimes better than they understood themselves, he read intentions easily and forgave honestly; he did not take enemies easily and he respected others, rewarding their courage. Cleitus definably loved to serve Philip, but he would have to think twice if asked whom he would rather serve: the current king or the heir to the throne.

Given his respect for the man who had just ordered him pity on the lowlife he was grabbing, Cleitus took a deep breath and said with a shrug, adding his trademark smirk,

"48 hours, then." He discreetly looked at Alexander who nodded approvingly. After all he understood the need for Cleitus to reaffirm his power, otherwise it'd be chaos on camp.

Cleitus nodded back, turning around and continuing to drag Iphicrates along with him, while hissing on the soldier's ear "Remember that the prince has pretty much saved your sorry ass next time you're on the battlefield."

The morning ended quickly for both Hephaestion and Alexander who, after spending it talking to the soldiers and having some improvised training sessions, stopped for a meal. Along their way they learned some details about each other that fascinated them. Hephaestion was fascinated about how Alexander seemed to know every soldier's name by heart. Alexander was fascinated about how Hephaestion seemed to be respected by every soldier despite his character. Both of them were fascinated about how the other was loved.

Alexander fought to hide his eagerness all morning, looking barely interested as his guard showed him incredible soldier's life moments that he never had the chance to experience before. Eventually, they reached a large, rather empty ground where some soldiers were wrestling. Even though there was a small number of people actually wrestling, there were many men around them watching, betting and cheering for their friends, all of them in a huge circle in order to watch all matches that were happening at the same time. They were probably using their mealtime for this, given as none of them seemed very concerned about their training at the moment. Among these men, Alexander spotted Cleitus and immediately made his way over to the older man. Hephaestion followed him hastily, but not before rolling his eyes and asking the gods why would they have him babysit when he had innumerous other talents.

"Cleitus!" Alexander called out. "What are you doing here?" He patted the man on the back lightly.

"Half-naked boys wrestling each other to the ground? You should be asking how come I don't set camp on this very spot." The prince chuckled, knowing he should have been expecting this kind of answer from the man who seemed to sleep with everything that could stand in two legs.

"Besides, I'm making sure that every man that wins gets to fight my boy." Alexander and Hephaestion followed his gaze to Iphicrates who seemed to be having the time of his life! And by time of his life I actually meant fighting desperately for keeping himself alive.

"Won't that most likely kill him?" Hephaestion asked out of curiosity. He didn't much care whether Iphicrates lived or died, after all the man was one of his annoying stalkers.

Cleitus waved him off with a simple hand movement. "Nah. Once he passes out we'll get on to the running." He nodded intelligently as if this wasn't one of the most homicidal plans ever.

Surprised by the lack of annoyance on his current emotions, Hephaestion looked around for the prince, who seemed to be too distracted to even bother his guard. Hephaestion studied Alexander's eager expression. It was just as if he was dying to go there and try it himself. And he was; the prince wanted that raw fight, he wanted the rush of emotions and the yells of the crowd. Still, he knew that no matter how many times he tried no one would fight him seriously. He was never really able to be as great in wrestling because he never got the chance to practice it right. Everybody just dropped to the floor and the smallest effort.

"I challenge you." Hephaestion blurted out before being able to control himself. Alexander blinked, wondering if he heard him correctly.

Cleitus eyes widen as he slowly turned to face Hephaestion. Everybody knew that Alexander was by all accounts one of the most psychotically competitive human beings on the planet; challenging him was suicidal. If Alexander won, the other would have been beaten to a pulp, as the other did not cease to fight until he was sure his opponent was down. If Hephaestion won, which was unlikely since Alexander never lost… Cleitus rather not think about any of it.

_To be continued..._

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So... hm, please don't hate me?  
I have been so busy in ways that I didn't even know were humanly possible and I simply couldn't manage to write anything. Maybe a suicide note... maybe. But I'm back and I have two months off college to work on the story.  
Again, I can't stress enough how sorry I am. I love you all and I really would be more than happy (and consider myself forgiven) if I could have some happy reviewers :D


	7. Chapter 7

**All that glitters is not gold - Chapter 7**

"You what?" The prince spoke slowly. Hephaestion's mind raced; backing down now meant the prince would mock him until his last breath; wrestling the prince would end up badly whether he won or lost. The newly appointed guard eventually reached the eloquent conclusion that 'whatever, I'll die anyway.'

He repeated, "I challenge you." Alexander's beautiful features shined as he smiled widely, staring straight into Hephaestion's eyes as he said with the firmest tone,

"I accept your challenge." He then rushed to the center of the grounds, leaving a baffled Hephaestion staring into nowhere. The guard held a hand over his face that had suddenly earned a gentle reddish tone over the prince's look. He shook his head, took a deep breath and proceeded to follow his potential executioner.

"Good luck, lad." Cleitus spoke loudly. Hephaestion turned and stared at the grinning man. Right now he didn't particularly care that he was an annoying pervert, he could use all the luck he got to survive this incident brought down by his own compulsiveness.

As the crowd noticed the prince making his way to the middle of the training grounds, a loud cheer erupted, all soldiers clapping and shouting for the heir.

The prince waved lightly at them after removing the upper part of his chiton, which earned him some more cheers. Hephaestion's worried features turned into light embarrassment as the prince approached him, his defined torso appeared to glow naturally as if he was some kind of god. He forced himself to look only at Alexander's face, working on a composed facial expression.

Hephaestion was able to look at the prince with no other… distractions. However, he failed to remember that even though being able to not look at the man's torso was a real improvement, he was also required to listen to whatever the prince might be saying at the time.

"Did you hear me?" Alexander spoke, his features showing slight concern for the other's silence. Hephaestion kept staring blankly at him. The prince raised an eyebrow as he repeated, "I asked if you are going to take that off?" He asked, motioning to the other's chiton.

"No." Hephaestion answered a little too quickly. The prince smirked, noticing his obvious discomfort.

"I guess that is for the best." Alexander spoke with a shrug. Then, he inched closer to Hephaestion and whispered, "I might not be able to hold myself back if I saw you half naked."

Hephaestion stood in the very same spot, fighting to control his breathing as Alexander returned to where he was before.

Alexander smirked as he watched the effect of his words on his guard. This satisfaction, however, lasted only for a few seconds before he realized what he had just told the other man. He covered his mouth in an involuntary movement, internally wondering what on Earth had possessed him to utter such words. Sure it was unbearably amusing to mess with the other man but still, a better choice of words would be in order. Hephaestion might even think he still liked him or something. Which he didn't, obviously, and that shall be proven in the wrestling match.

Once Hephaestion took a hold of his breathing, his brain began receiving enough oxygen to process what had just happened. Was the prince messing with him? How dare him! He would pay dearly for this affront.

Hephaestion turned at Alexander with a glare that could match the one he showed before punching the prince the other day. Said prince recognized it all too well, flinching involuntarily. Annoying the hotheaded guard now seemed like a rather questionable move.

The moment the matched started, Hephaestion threw himself mercilessly at the prince, both eagerly using their hate for each other as fuel for the match. Their body's entangled perfectly in what seemed to be the most graceful wrestle or the messiest dance ever. Cleitus might as well be having a nosebleed.

It was actually a good thing that they were so anxious about beating each other or they would have noticed details that would definitely make this story shorter.

They grabbed and pushed and threw, the crowd cheering all the way. They looked like exact reproductions of those expensive statues that represented the Olympic games and that were distributed all around Philips's enormous palace. Makes you wonder if he was compensating for something.

Alexander was faster and stronger but Hephaestion knew how to apply his own body to win against those odds. His was agile, patient and understood the need to keep his focus, something the prince lacked strongly.

After an unusual effort, Hephaestion managed to throw the larger man down, holding him to the ground with a good application of his lighter weight. The moment the prince hit the ground in a loud thud, the crowds' voices silenced and their breath seemed to hitch on their throats. Royalty never seemed to hold defeat easily and Alexander, as far as they knew, was never defeated. This incident would later earn Alexander the reputation of never being defeated, except for Hephaestion's tights.

Hephaestion wasn't worried for some reason he himself did not quite understand. He simply felt as if the prince needed this. After a few seconds had past, he took himself of the ground and, holding out his hand, he smiled and called.

"Prince Alexander." Said man raised his head, a playfully smirk on his lips as he took the hand and stood up, making the crowd cheer loudly for both of them. Hephaestion chuckled, retreating his hand once the man got up and turned to his old self.

"Not bad for a spoiled little prince." Alexander dusted off his clothes.

"You only won because I thought it would be unkind to beat a lady." Hephaestion smirked at his words.

"Would you like to try again? Maybe this time you won't trip on your own overgrown ego." Alexander smiled and they were back in their game.

Hours went on by and now they were alone in the dark training grounds. They had been at it for so long that even Cleitus grew tired of the same nakedness, retreating to his room. Both men ran out of energy a few minutes ago and were now splattered on the ground, recovering their breath.

"I should have returned to the castle by sunset." Alexander spoke, noticing the darkness of the sky.

Hephaestion snickered, replying, "Your mother will be disappointed."

Alexander smirked and said, "My father will wonder where my ever-effective guard was."

At a lack of response from Hephaestion, Alexander turned his head slightly, wondering if he had angered the guard yet again. Hephaestion stared back with a look of curiosity, his beautiful eyes shined as if they were a reflection of the night sky itself, eyes that were able to see your very own soul and all the secrets you ever held within it. This intense look made the prince's heart beat grow stronger, which he assumed was because he felt uncomfortable by it.

"What?" Alexander asked, turning his own eyes elsewhere.

"Did you flinch when I mentioned your mother?" Taken back by those words, Alexander turned his head back to Hephaestion, so fast he could almost feel his neck snap. Recovering his senses, he spoke indignantly,

"No!" Hephaestion raised himself slightly from the floor, pointing indiscreetly at Alexander with a surprised look.

"There it is again!" Alexander rolled his eyes, raising himself from the floor as well.

"What are you talking about?"

"Why did you flinch?" Hephaestion's accusation tone turned to pure curiosity.

"I did not flinch." The other simply stated.

"Yes, you did. I saw you." And as calm, rational adults, they discussed the subject further.

"I didn't."

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"I'm sorry to intrude, children, but it's past your bedtime and no one likes grumpy soldiers in the morning, now do they?" Came the refined tones of Ptolemy, patiently watching with his arms crossed and a grin plastered on his face.

Both men hid their embarrassment quickly, raising themselves off the floor. They said their goodbyes with a simple nod as Alexander made his way towards Ptolemy and Hephaestion watched them walk away.

"Your highness!" Hephaestion called out. By the title used, Alexander could easily divine what was coming next. He turned around anyway.

"You did flinch." Hephaestion escaped the training grounds before Alexander could do any fatal damage, but not before flashing an evil grin at the prince.

Ptolemy smiled in a motherly way, observing quietly as the prince chased Hephaestion unsuccessfully. He ran to catch up with Alexander, finding him watching with an imperceptible smile as Hephaestion walked away with Argeus at the distance.

At that moment, Ptolemy and Argeus asked the question that both the other men feared to hear.

"Is he growing on you?"

To that, Hephaestion replied with a small blush and immediate denial.

Alexander answered by shocking his head and hurrying back to his horse, not spearing another word to Ptolemy until the man said, "We'll be arriving late at the banquet. Were you so entertained that you didn't even noticed the time go by?" He teased with a playful smirk.

"I lost." Alexander changed the subject completely with a whisper that even the man riding next to him wasn't sure he hear it right.

"What?" Ptolemy asked, his voice in high pitch due to his surprise.

"I won sometimes too." Alexander said on his defense. "But I lost and it didn't felt like the end of the world." Ptolemy's surprise was gone, now replaced by careful curiosity.

"Were you expecting it to feel like the end the world?" Alexander shrugged, a bitter smile on his lips as he spoke,

"Mother said it would feel like that but it didn't. It felt… different." Ptolemy's eyes earned a glint of evilness as he asked,

"Would it have felt the same if you lost to say, Cassander?" The prince stared at him indignantly, immediately speaking,

"No!" The other chuckled, turning his attention back on the road.

"Thought so." Silence took place as the prince fought to find an excuse as to why losing to Hephaestion was not the same as loosing to Cassander.

"Cassander is evil." Alexander mumbled a few seconds later, to which Ptolemy laughed and nodded.

"Indeed." Deciding that the prince needed to think this over alone and was not yet ready to actual discuss it, Ptolemy spoke, "It's best if we hurry. You wouldn't want to be late for a banquet, you like them so much."

"Yes, I do." Alexander spoke with a cringe that the other did not notice.

The banquet had already started when Alexander and Ptolemy reached the palace. They changed their clothes and made their way to the room where people were still only drinking moderate amounts of wine, after all it was only the beginning of a long evening.

No one's saying that the Macedonians didn't enjoy their spirits a little too much, too often and far too violently from time to time-but every country in the world has their share of alcoholics. Halfway through the night, all were very aware of this fact; men fighting to maintain their balance, broken furniture around the room and some other events that are perhaps best left untold.

"Ptolemy!" The prince called out, his voice full of enthusiasm as he approached his friend, dragging along a young woman under his arm who still had a very naïve believe about Alexander's interest on her.

"Your highness!" Ptolemy spoke, resting his cup on the table as he turned to face Alexander. He then noticed how the other walked in certain but unbalanced steps, a sly grin on his face and rather flushed cheeks. "You seem very..." He started, not quite sure how to put it.

"High-spirited?" Alexander helpfully offered.

Ptolemy scratched the back of his neck and spoke, "Yes, something along those lines."

"How could I not be so when I'm accompanied by… by…" Alexander rummaged furiously through his brain in desperate search for the woman's name. He had met her earlier that evening and was immediately captivated by her bright blue eyes and… well, actually that pretty much all that caught his attention but she was in fact a very beautiful woman. "…her."

Alexander proud himself of his clever answer that might have been better if he had had less wine or any real interest on what the woman might think. Ptolemy stared, wondering if that man had any shame whatsoever. The woman frowned for a split of a second but quickly recovered her wide smile once the prince turned to her with and winked.

"Just remember you have an early practice tomorrow. Hephaestion will be awaiting to escort you so you must not delay yourself." And by that Alexander's slightly intoxicated brain understood that if he had a rather busy night he would not be able to fight and scream properly at his guard in the morning.

"Don't worry yourself, my friend. I'd be able to beat that man in my sleep." Ptolemy stared at him in confusion, where they even talking about the same matter?

"For what I witnessed today I assumed you were getting along better." For a few seconds after the future general uttered those words, Alexander recalled all that had happened today and how he had experienced something dangerously close to enjoyment several times. 'This cannot happen' he thought to himself 'I cannot show him that I enjoy myself near him, otherwise he'll use it against me'. What would be of him if Hephaestion believe he had any control over the prince? He would not enjoy himself near that man ever again, that's for sure.

Suddenly, all of these thoughts vanished from Alexander's mind, suppressed by a powerful force known as desire. "I feel like I'm missing something."

Ptolemy raised an eyebrow as he felt tempted to state 'Your mind?' but the woman beat his question with one more sensible for the prince's needs. She leaned on him and added a giggle after stating,

"I'll satisfy your every need, your highness." Ptolemy firmly suppressed the urge to shudder as the prince's face lit up instantly.

"Exactly!" Alexander spoke excitedly, kissing the woman roughly for a brief moment. Ptolemy wondered if he shouldn't already be used to this kind of public displays of affection, especially since his culture strongly advised him to participate on what he considered to be very humiliating parades of intimacy, also known as orgies. He turned around and picked up his drink, sipping it at the same time he tried find someone to keep him company since the prince seemed very fond of his latest conquest's suggestion.

"What I'm missing is another one of you." The heir to the throne spoke loudly, pointing indiscreetly at the woman accompanying him with a wide grin. Ptolemy covered his mouth as he felt the urge to spat out his drink. It was amazing how none of the previous women had ever tried to kill the prince for being this outspoken. This behavior was not at all uncommon for Alexander; it just became more frequent when he was tipsy or mad. Not many reprehended this conduct because not many enjoyed that kind of authority towards the prince. Only Philip, Olympias and, sometimes, Parmenion, Aristotle and – did so. Others, such as his friends, were only able to strongly advise him against it, which proved to be quite unsuccessful.

When Alexander was walking away with 'her' on search for another company, Cassander spotted and approached him. A directing a particularly disgusted look at the woman, he proceeded to ask the prince about his day and, trying hard to hide his interest on Hephaestion's misfortune, he asked about him. Alexander stared angrily at him in silent, making the man instantly regret his question. Suddenly, his anger disappeared as quick as it settled in and he only spoke, "I think three would be better." Cassander nodded in fright and the other two walked away hastily. He had no idea of what the prince was talking about, but he did make a mental note never to ask about the guard again.

Not far from them, Ptolemy had watched this whole discussion, perceiving some interesting information that everyone else had yet to notice.

"Joy to you, my friends!" Alexander said, bursting the doors of the common room open. He had always been a man for great entrances. His calling had been loud enough to arouse curiosity of the palace's guards who moved slightly off their posts just to peek into huge corridor Alexander had been a few seconds ago.

"You're in a good mood." Nearchus observed. The future generals and the prince usually took time off their busy schedules to meet before applying themselves to their usual tasks. This time was used for the male version of gossip, who strangely enough is very similar to the feminine one, with less giggling.

"Indeed." Alexander breathed out, throwing himself next to Leonnatus who eyed him strangely. "I had a splendid night."

"I can see that." Perdiccas spoke as he looked at the open door, spotting a couple of girls who came rushing down the hallway, giggling as they passed by. Alexander smirked at them, making them practically melt. All the companions nodded with a knowing smirk on their lips.

"After this last week, it was just what I needed to get back on the horse." The prince spoke with such confidence that Ptolemy couldn't help but question,

"So the whole Hephaestion matter is behind you?" Alexander regained his posture immediately, sitting himself straight and wiping the smile of his face. It almost seemed that the name of his guard was enough to chain him back to his duties for some reason.

"I will certainly not let that man ruin my routine." He spoke with confidence. "Today he will meet Leonidas," An evil smile took over his lighten features, "I doubt he'll survive so I have no reason to fear for the safety of my evening lifestyle."

"Yesterday you seemed so entertained that I thought you had passed through the fighting stage." Ptolemy spoke, seemingly eager to drive the prince to insanity through a lot of mentioning of the guard's name.

Alexander frowned slightly, studying the other's features, possibly looking for the reason for all this questions. However, Ptolemy, probably from all the time he spent at the mercy of the prince's mind control technique, knew very well how to fake his innocence to some degree. If it was a serious matter, Alexander would certainly apply himself well enough to read entirely through his friend but as it was not, he simply did not try hard enough, clearing Ptolemy form his possible punishment.

"The man is not all defects, I admit. Still, it does not mean that my hatred has in any way faltered." Ptolemy decided to leave it at that, changing the subject to which his friends gladly responded.

Alexander's bright mood suddenly went sore once he spotted Hephaestion waiting for him at the door. Hephaestion's posture dignified his from, making him look quite majestic. His arms were crossed as he gazed blankly at nowhere in particular.

For some reason, something quite unusual squirmed inside Alexander. He touched his stomach lightly, 'Seems like two isn't enough.' He mumbled to himself, then finding a simple solution for his issue, 'I'll try three tonight.'

Alexander took a deep breath, preparing himself for the inevitable as he rose from his chair, his hand leaving his stomach. Considering it wasn't fair for him to be the only one to feel uncomfortable with the other's presence, he spoke with a dramatic tone,

"My friends, I must go." Said men looked at him strangely, wondering what he was up to. "After all, it's not wise to leave the nurse waiting, he might spank me." Whispering the last part with a sly grin, he turned around and joined Hephaestion who seemed unmoved by the other's words. As the prince left the room, Hephaestion followed him silently, leaving the future companions behind.

Exchanging looks of concern, the prince's friends wondered how long would it take for all this pressure to bottle up and lead Hephaestion to a stress level of a killing spree.

Alexander eyed his guard; it was strange how he had been quiet as they were in the castle and now as they walked towards the stables to get Bucephalos. The guard's stoic expression could only mean he was unpleased by something. Alexander shook his head lightly as he noticed his considerate thoughts; he did not care, he really didn't.

A few seconds later they were alone, no guard or any person around. Hephaestion broke the silence but kept on looking forward as he walked.

"It's low to attack your opponents when they cannot defend themselves. Figured Aristotles would have taught you that." The guard said, his tone giving away his annoyance.

Alexander raised an eyebrow, stopping in his tracks as he supported his arms on his hips and spoke in an annoyed tone, "Hephaestion, as usual, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Hephastion stopped as well, turning around and saying, "You insult me in front of your companions when you know I cannot retort to you in their presence."

Alexander paused for a second; since when had they developed this habit of offending each other with or without provocation? It seemed like a game that they were now deciding needed ground rules to go on. It's as if they shared some kind of weird intimacy. The prince felt a chill run down his spine at that thought.

"You shouldn't retort to me at all!" Alexander said, raising his arms in exasperation. Why did the other still fail to see they were not equals?

As Alexander spoke, Hephaestion realized that he was right. He shouldn't talk back at all. If it were any other member of the royal family he'd be dead by now. But then again, this conversation had already gone too far to go back now. If he did concede this victory to the prince he would never earn his dignity back. "You shouldn't attack your servants when they do not provoke you."

"You punched me!" Alexander spoke loudly, wondering yet again why did the guard seem to refuse to listen to him.

"You threw me off a cliff!" Hephaestion retorted.

"I needed to save your life!" The prince answered automatically, not quite giving a thought about the information he was giving away.

Hephaestion snorted. "How did that work out for you?"

Alexander's eye twitched. This was the kind of conversation that would probably end with blood. "Fine." The prince spoke, raising his arms and for the first time admitting defeat. Something in him kept saying that it was better to lose this battle than to have the other stay away from him forever. "Talk back all you want."

"Wha-?" Hephaestion started, startled by the other's reply. "I don't want to talk back."

Alexander clenched his fists, trying to contain his anger.

"What on earth do you want then, Hephaetion?" Said man gave a step back, stunned by the other's sudden change of humor. "I swear you're the most confusion human being I have ever seen, which is saying a lot if you consider my parents." Realizing Hephaestion stunned gaze, Alexander breathed out and turned to walk away.

"Let's just go to practice."

Alexander wasn't half as angry as he seemed to be, he was simply frustrated to a degree that was a rare sight. He did not understand the other at all and that made him feel like someone else; someone who did not share his understanding of the human behavior and, therefore, was not fit to be king. Hephaestion made him feel his weaknesses. He was not good for his health.

Unexpectedly, the prince felt something tug at his arm. He was surprised but did not turn around, looking to avoid more embarrassment than the one he already submitted himself to.

"I-I just didn't want you to provoke me, that's all." Hephaestion spoke, his voice in a whisper, trying to hide his regret.

Alexander only rewarded him a slight nod, feeling the warmness slide away as Hephaestion started walking beside him. The prince didn't reply because he didn't trust himself to do so. His heart was thumping hard and his mind was racing. Hephaestion was definitely not good for his health.

_To be continued..._

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Hey again :D

I suppose some of you wonder what on earth do I have to do that is so important that I can't just update the damn thing more often - I know, I feel that way towards many stories as well. The explanation is that I don't know how to follow one string of thought so I end up writing parts of a future chapters without finishing the ones that come before them. So I am now the proud owner of 25 pages of future chapters for this story that I have no actual use for right now... how awesome.


	8. Chapter 8

**A.N: **Dedicated to Zophiel Lagace, agdoll394 and BIGBIGFAN.

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**All that glitters is not gold - Chapter 8**

"You seem excited." Alexander spoke, hiding his interest on the other's mood with a cold tone of voice as he and Hephaestion walked side by side towards Leonidas' private training grounds. Even though he tried hard to keep a composed posture, Hephaestion was practically skipping out of pure excitement. Deciding it was too late to fool the prince after the obvious hop, Hephaestion answered him truthfully,

"You have no idea how lucky you are, have you?" Alexander rolled his eyes, resisting the urge to grab the other's shoulders and just shook him until he woke towards reality.

"Sure I do. Leonidas - trainer of men, raiser of armies." He announced with a dramatic voice, paused and then mumbled, "Wait until you meet him and then you tell me." Hephaestion didn't care what the other thought; nothing was ruining this day for him.

They reached the plain training grounds where an old man with quite a long beard and a staff on his right hand stood, staring darkly at them as they approached. The training grounds where nothing like the excellence Hephaestion expected; there were no statues, no plants or anything but dirt for that matter. Actually, the training grounds were simply a dead field with some marks on the ground here and there that Hephaestion assumed were part of some elaborated exercise.

They approached the man, Alexander leading the way and stopping a few feet away from Leonidas. They stood like this for a few minutes; nothing happened. Hephaestion discreetly looked back a forth from the prince to the trainer, both locked in a cold gaze directed to the other. Eventually, Hephaestion decided to step in.

"Joy to you, Lord Leonidas. My name is-" Hephaestion's words were stopped simply by Leonidas cold gaze.

The man looked him up and down, and then said with a rough, strong voice. "I do not care what your name is, soldier. Nor should you care about mine. In the battlefield we don't go by names, we go by strength, and that is all that matters."

Hephaestion blinked, perplexed. Alexander stifled a laugh; this would definitely be amusing.

"Start running."

"Wha-?" Hephaestion asked, taking a step back.

"Now!" The voice roared. Just the sound of this man's voice was enough for anyone to start running out of pure fright. Hephaestion immediately did as he was told, Leonidas watching him go with a deliberating gaze. Alexander snickered, immediately turning serious as Leonidas faced him, saying, "Why are you laughing? Get behind him, now."

"He's amazing." Hephaestion said, sharing his thoughts out of shear enthusiasm as Alexander reached his side. Alexander frowned.

"You're an idiot."

"What did you say?" Hephaestion asked in a low, threatening tone. Stopping abruptly in his tracks and turning to face the prince. Alexander repeated his previous offense, raising a battle of civil proportions.

"I can hear talking, but I hear no running, soldiers!" The trainer shouted, walking away from them to get his well-deserved wine. Reaching his wife's side, he took the cup from her hands and turned back to watch his students, who were currently to busy trying to kill each other to pay him any mind.

The man frowned. Typically, he wouldn't take two students; Alexander was all the pain he needed. However, Philip had pushed him into taking in this other boy who is oh so wonderful in the king's view, which could only mean the man was good looking. Still, Philip did know that only exceptional men could come to his training grounds, and that one seem to have the kind of excellence he advocated, all to be expected from a royal guard. What he didn't except, though, was that this new student had enough balls to go and fight the future king as he was currently doing. It took a lot of courage, mixed with some ingenuity and trust, to take on the second most powerful man in all Macedonia.

"They're adorable, aren't they?" His wife spoke, interrupting his thoughts with her sweet voice.

"Indeed, my dear." He answered, sarcastically.

"Do you like the wine?"

"Splendid as ever, thank you." Leonidas sipped his wine peacefully, watching as the other two men fought to kill each other. Reaching the end, he handed the cup back to his wife. "They had their fun."

"Don't be too hard on them, Leonidas." She warned, making him sigh and nod. This woman ruined his reputation simply by existing.

Leonidas calmly reached the boys' side, hitting them with his cane, which he fervently defended as a staff, in the head. They both frowned at the man, holding their aching heads.

"You have no right to beat each other." He scolded, holding out his staff. "I'll be the only one doing the beating around here, do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir." They mumbled together as school children that were being scolded.

"Now, who's up for a swim?" Leonidas spoke with such a bright voice that could only mean absolute doom.

Hephaestion followed the other two men quietly as they made their way down and further into a cave that lay inside Leonidas' territory. It was called a territory since the man made his own laws for anyone who dared to set foot in this perimeter, denying even the heir to the throne the right to be anything above a student there.

They walked for what felt like an eternity to Hephaestion who, surrounded by the darkness of the deep cave and it's coldness, gave in to fear slightly, carefully considering the possibility that the prince was right and this man was indeed insane; not misunderstood-genius insane but I'm-going-to-burn-your-house-and-hunt-down-everyone-you-love-if-you-as-much-as-sneeze-near-me insane.

So, in short, he was trapped in a dark, cold cave with his foe and a maniac Spartan. This must be his lucky day.

Eventually, they reached what seemed to be the end of the cave; a rather enormous place with such beautiful ice that could resemble a bright crystal had Hephaestion been less cold and not as nervous as he currently was.

"Welcome to my private pool." Both young men raised an eyebrow at this elegant salute; the man was way too excited by all this. Hephaestion looked around, still failing to see the water they were supposed to be swimming in a near future.

"Do you feel up to it, boys?" Hephaestion looked at the man, then back to Alexander who was doing a quite poor job at hiding his intense hatred towards his teacher.

"Of course." Alexander spat after a few seconds, his intense gaze still locked with Leonidas'. The teacher smirked, raising his staff high above the ice they were standing in. After what seemed like a millisecond, the staff was thrust down, piercing the ice with such violence that vast cracking lines emerged as far as the eye could see.

"Good luck." Leonidas spoke, jumping out of the ice and back to solid ground with such swiftness that was unusual for someone of his age. He then bowed and proceeded to make his way out of the cave, leaving the prince and his very startled guard behind.

"What just happened?" Hephaestion asked, turning to Alexander who, as soon as his teacher was out of sight, lost his mask of indifference and earned a rather troubled expression that could only mean bad news for both of them.

"Listen to me." Alexander stated in hurry, barely giving time to the other to finish his question. "The ice we're standing in will give out in a few seconds. We will fall into the freezing water and we will only have one way out of this cave, which is swimming down towards the waterfall." He stopped to catch his breath, during which time Hephaestion tried to puzzle all the information together and not give away his uneasiness. "However, you can just deny the challenge and go back the same way we came."

Hephaestion stared at the other indignantly; how dare him think he was a quitter? He might be actively thinking of giving up since he was kind of fond of breathing but still, that was an outrageous remark.

"I didn't think you had to ask." He hissed, concealing all traces of insecurity. Alexander smirked, stating,

"You have guts, I'll give you that." The ice started to give out bellow their feet, only giving time for Hephaestion to retort with his own smirk,

"See you by the waterfall."

They feel into the freezing water with a remarkable grace, containing the panic of the darkness, the pain of the muscles, the lack of air and all the other characteristics of the water that made this place a freezing hell. Hephaestion fought to keep his eyes open to follow Alexander even though they pained him so much as if he was gauging them out with his own bare hands. They swam with much of a bigger effort than what you'd except in average waters. Eventually, they reached the waterfall; Hephaestion could feel the water getting slightly warmer as they approached sunlight and, reminding himself this was the ultimate effort towards freedom, he jumped.

Alexander reached the shore first but Hephaestion didn't take long to catch up to him. They breathed heavily, fighting to regain the oxygen their bodies craved for after such effort.

"It's spring." Hephaestion stated in between gasps. "There was ice and it's spring."

Alexander chuckled, coughing as that single movement of entertainment caused him to interrupt his battle for a steady breathing.

"Aristotle would have loved you." Hephaestion stared at him curiously, wondering if the freezing water had somehow affected his brain. Alexander understood this look, explaining, "You have a near death experience but what you do is wonder about the source of the solid water that caused said experience."

Hephaestion shrugged, slightly embraced by his honest question. They sat in silence for a while, their legs splattered before them as their arms gave them support.

"I have a question." The guard spoke suddenly, his eyes never leaving the river before them. Alexander turned to him, expecting the question with a hidden interest. "How did Leonidas know that you wouldn't simply run away?"

Hephaestion's question could be seen as simple curiosity but concealed a test for the future king's honor towards himself and his kingdom. The honor that one holds for himself is easily stretched to pride but the honor for one's kingdom can only be taken as dedication and patriotism. A true king always puts the second one before the first.

"Because I gave him my word." Alexander's answer was true. Maybe it was not what the other man expected from him but it was definitely an answer worthy of a true heir.

"But this is suicidal." Hephaestion insisted, carelessly exploring the boundaries of the prince's honor.

"I'll be king. I need to live up to my words because my people will live according to them." Alexander, again, spoke in honesty. And Hephaestion, again, decided it was not enough to convince him of the other's worth.

"Noble words." He paused. "I give you five minutes as a king to forget all about them." He said, his words giving away the real reason for his questions. Alexander smiled to himself; he had read this meaning into the questions since they first started and now the guard proved him right by a simple statement. The prince was proud of finally being able to read the man's words and reactions accurately. Maybe Hephaestion wasn't such a secret as he thought in the first place.

"Why would I?" He asked, hiding his teasing tone.

"Your father did." Alexander's amusement turned sour at the mentioning of the king.

"I'm not my father." He stated in a cold tone of voice, his fist clenching against the grass. Hephaestion noticed this discreet movement that reminded him of the prince's reaction to his mother's name. It proved that the rumors about the instability of the royal family were much more than tales made up by envious people.

"Obviously." Hephaestion rolled his eyes. "You have no facial hair." At this statement, Alexander snapped his attention back to the guard who fought to hide his grin without much success.

"I do!" The prince spoke indignantly, instantly forgetting about any matters related to his family. He caressed his jaw, distractedly searching for a lost hair as he mumbled, "It just takes a while to grow like any good harvest."

Hephaestion raised an eyebrow, his lips closed tightly as he suppressed a laugh. "Did you just compare your facial hair to crops?" Alexander's response was a sly smile that suddenly turned into a blank stare, accompanied by the question,

"Why do we keep having these pointless conversations?" Hephaestion's mood worsened somewhat at these words.

"It's the only way we don't fight." An awkward silence took place, both young men looking anywhere but at each other. Hephaestion cleared his throat and asked the first question that came to his mind with a serene voice "When did you start doing this?"

"When I was four, I think." Alexander shrugged, not quite caring about any of these unfortunate memories. "It was such a long time ago, I can barely recall. It's actually how I learned to swim." He spoke the last part with pride as he remembered one of his most heroic moments. "A quite literal sink or swim situation." He added with excitement to which Hephaestion answered with a surprised expression and a distracted nod.

Alexander frowned at the distinct disapproval but didn't speak harshly to his guard. "Don't look at me like that; there are far worse things in the world than his homicidal drills." And they were back to the dark place of an uncontrollable silence that seemed to make an appearance in each of their simple conversations.

"Why did you do it?" The prince spoke in a same effort to break the silence as Hephaestion had tried before.

"Did what?"

Alexander shrugged, "I just recalled your question. Why did you stay when it was I who gave my word?"

Hephaestion blinked at the unexpected question, wondering if Alexander was trying to achieve the same knowledge he did when he himself asked it.

"Because I'm a soldier. I protect Macedonia and, therefore, you." The simple answer was not enough to satisfy Alexander's curiosity.

"I'm a better swimmer. It's more likely that I would have to save you from drowning." He paused and then added, "Again."

Hephaestion rolled his eyes at the last, unnecessary, remark. Then, he proceeded to explain honestly with a confident voice, "It doesn't matter if I can't actually save you. It matters that I stand by your side even if I know you might fall." Alexander gazed at him with slightly widen eyes, every fiber of his being fighting away the desire to read more into those words than what Hephaestion actually meant by them.

Alexander rose from the floor in a sudden move, his head spinning from fighting so many emotions at the same time. Hephaestion stood as well, stepping forward to support the prince. Alexander quickly dismissed the other's efforts and spoke a harsh tone, his eyes fixated on the ground,

"Go home." Hephaestion was taken back by those words.

"But it's still early." The guard replied, earning an irritated glance from the prince.

"I'm staying in the palace, there's hardly any place safer than that."

"But I must, it's my job." Alexander turned with fierce eyes at Hephaestion, hissing,

"Are you planning on watching as I share my bed with woman?" Hephaestion's eyes widen, caught by surprised at the prince's outburst after such a polite conversation. Realizing he should have seen this kind of impulsive behavior coming, he simply stated, "Fine. Have it your way." and then turned to walk away, ignoring his own feelings of dismissal.

The heir to the Macedonian throne sat quietly at one of the palace's common rooms, sipping his wine as he watched the city that would one day be his. This room was the one with a better view over the kingdom and, better yet, was located in one of the upper floors where few dared to go for two reasons: first, the nobles were not very fond of the number of stairs one has to climb to get there; secondly, but not in any way less important, this room was awfully close to the queen's, which speaks for itself.

Alexander hid in this room more times than he can actually count but this time it was less of a refugee and more of a meditating place. He had come here to put his utterly impractical feelings for Hephaestion to rest. He was not quite sure of the nature of these feelings but something told him that those were the kind of emotions that would cause him trouble; Alexander was never a man to run from a battle but he figured this could be a one-time exception.

Hephaestion was a quite charming character with some limited qualities that he would not explore further for it could lead to a certain kind of exacerbated fondness. This were the thoughts the prince was working hard to incorporate into his mind when he was rudely interrupted by Ptolemy and Nearchus who, spotting their prince alone in such a dark place, figured he must have caught some serious disease.

"Why are you here, Alexander?" Ptolemy asked after identifying the shadow in the corner as his prince. Alexander raised his eyebrows in perfect synchrony,

"I live here."

"You sleep here. You occasionally have a meal here. Otherwise you just stroll around, avoiding your parents." Nearchus spoke, his tone concerned for the prince's health. Alexander rolled his eyes and rose from his chair, scolding himself for not locking the door after going to so much trouble to steal the key a few weeks ago.

"I decided to come home early to have some peace of mind, which obviously I wont be able to achieve with you here." He spoke sarcastically as he rested his cup on the table.

"Isn't Hephaestion coming?" Ptolemy asked, his words with a tone of manipulative curiosity that was unusual of him. Alexander's frame stiffed imperceptibly.

"No, he has other matters to attend to." A look of realization dawned on the future companion's features, accompanied by a light, long 'oh'. Alexander refrained from rolling his eyes; it was not a good time to give away his feelings, letting one go (even if it was just annoyance) might cause a down roll for all he knew.

"Nearchus, find me a woman." Alexander spoke as his entire being was inundated by a strong desire for other… activities.

"At this hour?" Ptolemy spoke, voicing his confusing in the best way he could. Nearchus just kept his cautionary gaze, now really wondering what kind of serious disease would lead to a sex-crazed prince when he was still not intoxicated beyond belief. It was of common knowledge that Alexander did not seek companions of intimate nature unless he was under the effect of wine or some other substance with the same consequences. No one understood this but they all assumed he had some strong reason to do so; a reason only Alexander himself knew.

"Do they keep tight schedules now?" Alexander asked with mockery.

"No, it's just not usual for you." Nearchus said with a shrug, then directing a warning look to Ptolemy as to tell him this was none of their business. A look that was promptly ignored as any other good advice.

"Why do you keep questioning my decisions today?" Alexander was done with the whole suppressing emotions thing. He was burning with desire and he did not have the time to play with Ptolemy and his concepts of duty and honor.

Nearchus sighed, knowing there was no use in contradicting the prince when he acted this way. "As you wish." He left the room with a slight bow, directing the same warning look towards Ptolemy who, again, dismissed it fervently.

"Alexander, please do not take offense, but…" Ptolemy started, his eyes uncertain as the prince faced him and waited for his speech. Ptolemy blurted out, "Is it just me or every time you and Hephaestion get along, you get into a lustful spree through the palace?"

Caught by surprise, Alexander lost his posture for a moment; his eyes were wide and his body took a step back involuntarily. Ptolemy saw this as he saw how the prince quickly worked out a fake indignant expression as he uttered,

"That's ridiculous." He gave away a nervous chuckle that Ptolemy assumed was meant to be a strong laugh over his preposterous suggestion.

In that exact moment a knock was heard on the door and Hephaestion stepped in. Alexander could have sworn his heart gave out for a moment.

"I apologize for intruding," Hephaestion said with a slight bow, his composed posture proving that he had not heard Ptolemy's words. "I was told Commander Nearchus would be around here. General Parmenion sent me to give him a few documents." Alexander didn't speak or move at all; he just stood in the very same spot, working on his breathing. Ptolemy raised an eyebrow at this bizarre display of silence, turning back to Hephaestion with a polite smile,

"He just left. I apologize that we can't be of more help but we don't know where he might have gone to." Ptolemy could have told Hephaestion to look for the man surrounded by a considerable amount of good-looking, easy women, but decided against it. There was no need to spread this shameful information about the prince, especially to someone who was so admired by the king.

"Will he return?" Hephaestion questioned, his eyes darting towards Alexander for a few moments before turning back to Ptolemy.

"No." Alexander stated a little too strongly and a little too quickly. Ptolemy turned to the prince with a questioning look that obviously meant he would have some explanations to do later, and then to Hephaestion to whom he gave the same educated smile.

"I see." Hephaestion spoke, looking slightly lost as if this answer was to some other matter than Nearchus' absence. He then bowed slightly and exited, only saying, "Pardon the intrusion, sires."

Ptolemy didn't speak but he did look questioningly at the prince who didn't pay him any mind, for he was too busy shouting in frustration, "Where in Hades are all the women in this palace?"

The future general rolled his eyes and massaged his temple; he needed nothing more than those words to earn the confirmation to the question he had asked earlier.

After waiting for a sum of a very painful pair of minutes, Alexander dashed down the hall in search for women. He wanted a woman and he wanted her now; his libido would not take 'no' for an answer. In his rather questionable quest he was only stopped by his father who stood in front of him with a rather curious look; many people were giving him that look today.

"Well..." His father started. Alexander took a deep breath and asked,

"Yes, father?" Philip blinked, giving his son a few seconds to see if he recalled anything he should be telling him. Seeing as Alexander didn't seem to be understanding this approach any time soon, the king facilitated the conversation,

"Aren't you going to complain?"

"Pardon me?" The king was not happy; the only thing the boy knew how to do was annoy the hell out of him and even that he wasn't doing right for the past few days.

"You were so against having the Armyntor boy as your guard, I was expecting more action, or at least an exceptional amount of whining." He mocked, but then a look of realization stroke him. "Don't tell me you have already bedded him?"

"Wha-" Alexander started, seriously deciding he had heard his guard's name too many times for one day.

"It's the only thing that quiets you, now isn't it?" Philip spoke all-knowingly, then saying as he petted his facial hair, "But I did believe he would be harder to-"

"We did not share the same bed. Nor will we." Alexander interrupted the older man's words, his tone rising as his father's gesture reminded him of the earlier conversation about facial hair, which in return reminded him that he was remembering Hephaestion's actions and words too often.

At the raise of his son's voice, the king took a step further and hissed towards him, "Don't you think I've heard about the commotion you created trying to bed him? Do not take me for a fool, boy." Alexander's eyes widen slightly in surprise at these words. "I have eyes and ears everywhere; keep that in mind every time you think about humiliating yourself in public." He paused and turned, his voice echoing through the hall's walls as he yelled, "Next time I won't be so lenient!"

_To be continued (or not, all up to you)..._

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I'm depressed. More than depressed but I can't actually find a word to voice it accurately for my brain is clouded with depresseness (I'm even making up words, dammit.) Three reviews, seriously? That's beyond depressing.

I'd like to say two things; to the ones who reviewed, this whole chapter is dedicated to you guys 'cause no reviews means bad story and a bad story means THE END. And to all 244 of you who read but didn't review: I'm pouting. I hope you're proud of yourselves.


	9. Chapter 9

**All that glitters is not gold - Chapter 9**

After eight minutes of staring intensely at the massive piece of wood that stood tall before his eyes, Hephaestion came to a conclusion: Alexander's room had a rather impressive door; it was ornamented in the finest gold, defining lines and turns that probably hid some meaning unfamiliar to Hephaestion. This was, of course, completely useless information for any kind of task the prince's guard could possibly think of performing, but it was a way of keeping himself occupied and therefore avoiding whatever hid behind that circumspectly studied door. He did not feel like facing the unpredictable prince nor did he feel like spending the day with him. Today would definitely be a long day and the longest he was able to postpone its start, the better. Realizing his cowardly thoughts, Hephaestion shook his head and slapped himself mentally. This was not the time for hesitations, this was the time to man up and face the inevitable, after all he only needed to go in, awake the sleeping man, throw him a ton of information that no one would be able to perceive following a recent regaining of consciousness, spend the day with said man and then go on his merry way home. Easy, right?

He took a deep breath, worked up his fake smile and threw the door open.

Alexander's room was all that the door promised it would be, only with less wood and more gold. It's larger than any room Hephaestion had ever seen, with impressively tall and adorned walls that extended themselves towards a worked ceiling. There were large windows everywhere, making the room seem very fresh. Sharing the wall with the door, there was a large painting of an ancient hero riding his horse as he led an army. In the middle of the room lay a colossal bed that could easily take in four people, exceptionally decorated of a surprising gold and scarlet. All this greatness made Hephaestion wonder if whoever decorated the room was not compensating for something.

Hephaestion cleared his throat and proceed to his daily tragedy.

"Good morning, Prince Alexander. I have some announcements then I'm supposed to drag you out of bed." The growing that laid on the bed didn't even budge at his words. Hephaestion sighed heavily, his arms falling by his sides.

"Look, I'll just be honest. I have no idea whatsoever what am I doing here or why do you have to know that-" He turned, consulting the parchment he was currently holding. "-that your father imported new grapes this year," he shook his head not understanding the usefulness of this information, specially to a newly awaken idiot. "But General Parmenion told me this was part of my chores and here I am- Alexander, have you sprouted two heads or am I just going insane?"

The informal calling was, yet again, used with no ill intent, both because the guard was too frustrated and because he was too surprise to give his words any thought. Fortunately for Hephaestion and his already thin-layered sanity, the second head owned a body that was now rising slowly from its previous comfortable position beside the prince. The girl threw back her hair, looked left, right and then forward to where Hephaestion stood as a simple bystander. She studied him for a few seconds, blushed and proceeded to collect her discarded clothes. A second feminine body rose from the bed and acted exactly the same way as the other girl. Hephaestion looked back to the bed and simply watched for a while, afraid that if he approached some another woman might pop up.

The women hurried out without ever spearing a second glance to the guard, slamming the door accidentally on their way out. At this sound, the remaining sleeping bulge emerged from the covers, sitting himself straight. He held his head with both hands and groaned at the immense pain he was feeling. Hephaestion interrupted his weeping silence with a simple observation.

"Wow, that was…" He didn't finish, simply staring off to where the women last stood. Alexander didn't feel like talking. Actually, all he really wanted in that moment was some silence so he completed Hephaestion's phrase with what he expected him to say so that he could achieve some peace of mind.

"Yes, I know, astonishing and-"

"-really nauseating." Hephaestion completed, not even paying any mind to what Alexander was saying before he had the chance to complete his sentence.

"Ye- Wait, what?" Alexander was still too numb to be sure of what he had heard.

"Your room must be swarming with fluids." Alexander gaped at him, sincerely not having an answer to such an improper observation. "It's fine. I just won't touch any hard surface." Hephaestion spoke out loud even though he meant it mostly to himself.

Alexander shook his head and threw himself back to the pillows. "You are too much to handle this early in the morning."

Hephaestion stared off into the ceiling and took a deep, calming breath. After these strenuous tasks even Hercules' own efforts deserved to be regarded by Hephaestion with a disinterested 'meh' and a displeased look over the unfairness of the other being half a god, which by now seemed almost like cheating.

The guard marched to the bed, ready to destroy the rich furniture with his bare hands if that was what it took to persuade the prince to drag himself out of bed. He prepared his authority voice and spoke as he threw back the covers,

"Frankly, you should be- Oh by the gods, are you naked?" He didn't even wait for the prince's eventual answer to his quite rhetorical question, turning away as he mumbled to himself, "You'd think the son of the most powerful man on earth would be able to afford to keep himself clothed."

"I'm not naked!" Alexander said with a tone of indignation, then raising his covers only to discover he was indeed in such state. "Oh, whad'ya know?" He spoke, surprised at his own nakedness.

Alexander got up, yawned and then stretched for a full five minutes with an intensity that would be appropriate for an Olympic sportsman. During said activity, his guard simply stood as a stunned spectator of his surprisingly fit anatomy with a rewarding view of a wide variety of angles that made it unnecessary the use of his imagination to figure out any inch of the man's skin.

There is no need to explain what Hephaestion's natural reaction should be during this peculiar performance, or why we would be expect him to at least do some bit of screaming. However, he simply stood there with his jaw dropped looking upon the scene that would enrich his wet dreams in the future.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hephaestion spat every word slowly and with even intervals between them; he needed to be as candid as possible when dealing with this man, both to avoid voicing a stubborn thought of lust and to make sure the other understood his words.

"You should expect to find me with women if you're going to do this every morning." This display of obliviousness proved that Alexander didn't see anything odd about this parade of early gymnastics, which only served to prove further his lack of dignity.

"Oh, that's not even closely related the issue at hand." Hephaestion said, his desperation increasing. "After all, you've always been upfront about your allergy to monogamy."

"Good." Alexander nodded and forgot all about the true issue. Once every single one of Alexander's muscles were stretched, he took a deep breath and turned his attention back to Hephaestion, who stared with a mixture of incredulity, embarrassment and curiosity.

"Like what you see?" The prince questioned with a strange waggle of the eyebrows.

"No." Hephaestion spoke without nearly as much conviction as he was expecting to add to his answer. Not that conviction would matter after he had taken three minutes to provide said response that by now would be easily perceived as anything but honest. His brain was to blame after it decided to turn blank at the prince's question, but it was probably for the best or Hephaestion would have noticed that what he really wanted to say was 'yes, I do', leading to an uncomfortable situation of attempted suicide.

Whichever Hephaestion's answer might have been, it didn't matter. Alexander had long ran to the bathroom and locked himself in there in vain hopes that this would somehow break the fabric of time, making it possible for him to go back and stop himself from asking that foolish question. He found himself doing foolish things quite often every time he was within an earshot of his guard. Worse than that, he felt actually embarrassed by those simple actions as if he had just doomed his kingdom by performing each one of them. It was simply not reasonable that embarrassing himself in plain sight of a simple guard would make any difference to him. It was if Hephaestion's opinion mattered to him, and let it be said it could not be very positive.

Alexander took a calming bath on his own, something he had not done for many years. Usually there was a servant around to satisfy his every need or to simply stare awkwardly at him as he cleaned himself, depending on what he was on the mood for. It didn't take much effort since the servants had previously prepared all that was needed. So basically all he did was clean and dry himself, which was still something to be proud of.

When he left the bathroom he spotted his guard standing by the bed, a rather pensive look gracing his delicate features. Alexander cleared his throat to earn the other's attention and spoke all the while staring at the floor,

"From now on you don't have to wake me up." Foreseeing the question that would follow, Alexander stated, "That is, unless you'd like to see me naked everyday." adding a smirk for effect even though he wasn't feeling that much entertained.

As soon as Hephaestion's brain fully processed the idea, he blurted out, "You're a big boy, you can handle it." This was good. Alexander offered him a way out of this excruciating routine without any incentive. It was good for both of them; for the sake of Alexander's modesty (if he had any) and for Hephaestion's own; he definitely didn't need to find the prince sharing his bed with some woman every morning... a thought that was promptly interrupted and replaced by: which didn't bother him at all, the whole naked thing did, though.

Alexander collected his cape, his sword and the last of his accessories, leaving the room with Hephaestion right behind him.

"Where are we going?" The guard asked once he saw that Alexander was leading them away from the room where he was supposed to meet his mother for breakfast.

"We're going to find Cleitus. He's the closest official around." Hephaestion didn't understand but assumed he would learn the answer soon enough since the prince had now ceased walking and stood before one of the guest rooms, knocking a few times. No one answered, which didn't seem to surprise the young man. He opened the door with an exasperated sigh. Alexander motioned for the guard to come in and then slammed the door, successfully awakening the two figures that lay on the double bed. One of them jolted out of bed, yelling as he got dressed,

"How many times have I told you useless servants, you mustn't let me sleep all day! This woman charges by the hour!" Alexander's impatient attitude gave in and his expression earned a discrete smirk, pleased by his latest, also accidental, prank.

Hephaestion had had his fair share of naked women in the last hour that would last him for a week so he turned his gaze else where once the woman got out of bed in a hurry, dashing out of the room with a quick bow directed to Alexander. Hephaestion made a mental note to learn if this was some kind of tradition within the habitants of the palace.

Cleitus only realized the identity of his visitors once the guest room's door was slammed for the second time that morning, this time by the woman as she left.

"Ah, your highness." He spoke with the same condescending tone he usually applied in any conversation with the prince. "And beautiful Hephaestion." He added, noticing the man who stood behind the other. "Would you care to join me?" At this question, Alexander's smirk vanished. The invitation directed to Hephaestion was denied by a roll of eyes followed by a turn of attention to Alexander, a silent way of asking why they were there.

"Armyntor came to wake me this morning." The prince addressed Cleitus with authority.

"And what did you learn?" The older man spoke, his attention still fixated on the guard.

'That the prince's well endowed.' This thought ran through Hephaestion's mind for a second before common sense quickly trampled it and threw it under the nervous system's equivalent of a rug. The contemplation was unexpected enough to be transpired by Hephaestion's expression. Fortunately for him, Alexander had his back turned and didn't see it. Cleitus, however, did and rewarded the expression with a sly grin. Hephaestion frowned and Alexander figured the older man's grin was just Cleitus being his lunatic self.

"I didn't know these were part of the guard's tasks." Alexander continued before Cleitus could turned the conversation elsewhere, supposedly to convince Hephaestion to join him.

Cleitus decided to amuse Alexander's insistence. "General Parmenion figured that since you have a private guard, he should be put to a good use. A grown man is not nearly as easily frightened by your morning persona as your unfortunate servants."

"We decided against." Alexander stated, proving he did not care much for the reason the task was assigned. At the word 'we' Cleitus glowed such was his need to mess with the prince's sudden alliance with his foe.

"If 'we' decided it, there is nothing a simple mortal can do to oppose such will." It was a mocking expression that somehow summed up the future of glory that awaited the pair.

"I'll trust you to handle this matter with Parmenion."

"Go with your mind at ease, my prince." Cleitus announced as he bowed theatrically. Alexander turned around and walked out the door, not quite caring for his antics this early in the morning. Hephaestion was about to do the same when Cleitus called out to him,

"And Hephaestion, the queen is famous for having the worst personality in the royal family and, as you can imagine, that's up against some pretty stiff competition. Behave." The guard nodded and left, unaware this was one of the more useful suggestions he would ever get.

They walked up the stairs towards one of the upper floors that Olympias' had taken over. The floor shared the same grandiosity as all others but it was unique in its darkness and mystifying atmosphere. Alexander's expression stiffened perceptibly as the dining room's door came into sight but Hephaestion chose to keep silent, assured that speaking or taking any other misstep before the powerful queen would not be rewarded in the same note as it happened with Alexander.

The prince took a deep breath before stepping inside. "Joy to you, mother." Any signs of lack of confidence were gone, replaced by an adoring look that melted Olympias cold gaze into a loving expression. The prince signaled for his guard to stand away and beside the door. He approached the older woman, leaning forward and kissing her tenderly, dangerously close to her lips. Hephaestion noticed this with a surprised expression that turned noticeable once he perceived Olympias' caresses on her son's cheek and hair, her eyes closed and a faint moan escaping her lips. Once Alexander stepped away, taking his place on the table, the queen turned her attention to the servants, hurrying them away to go fetch a decent meal for her son.

"How are things been going with Philip?" She asked with such neutrality that Hephaestion was beginning to wonder if the previous scene had only been a trick played by his eyes.

"Not good." Even if this was the answer Olympias usually awaited, she was not pleased to notice that those words were uttered with a disheartened tone as Alexander's eyes fixated on the food being served.

"You know better than to expect anything of that man." The woman spoke, her motherly instincts surpassing her hatred towards Philip for a few seconds.

"I don't."

"You lie, Alexander. A mother can tell." She leaned back on her chair "But you please me in other ways that earn you your forgiveness."

The woman proceeded to share an enigmatic smile with her son, both in deep silence as their eyes locked for a long moment. Hephaestion discreetly looked back and forward between the two of them, his thoughts being, 'this is quickly going from merely nauseating to genuinely disturbing.'

Discreetly or not, Alexander felt himself being watched and turned his attention towards Hephaestion for a split of a second, more than enough time for his mother to notice. She turned to the guard with a particularly distasteful look mixed with some curiosity. Hephaestion didn't move a muscle, including his diaphragm, while the queen studied him.

"Who is this?" Alexander cringed at the question. His mother never took notice in anyone besides himself when they took their morning meal together, which was why he figured it would be safe enough for his guard to come along without the need to refer the connection of his presence with Philip. Well, better get it over with now.

"This is Lord Armyntor. Father appointed him to be my guard." Even though Alexander worked his hardest to provide this information quickly and painlessly, Olympias didn't pay any mind to his words, turning furiously to him as she said,

"His appearance is that of the filthy whores that share Philip's bed. Is that man looking to please you by offering you this creature?" A thick silence took place, being only interrupted by the queen's heavy breathing. The servants had taken this as their cue to leave, scrambling silently towards the back door.

The guard was downright insulted by these words but, as he could not respond by the penalty of death, he stood quietly as Cleitus delicately suggested earlier, turning his attention to the prince instinctively. He didn't expect the prince to suddenly turn against the person he loved the most and who had some kind of freak show control over him, especially when it was to defend someone who he obviously found insufferable. Hephaestion didn't expect it, but he sure hoped for it.

Between his mother's anger and Hephaestion despair, we find Alexander, the man who was now sure he should not have left his bed today. He knew that to appease Olympias he only needed to agree to her statement – a simple nod would do. He knew that, but his mind nor his heart seemed to be very fond of that concept, causing him to turn towards Hephaestion, who hid behind his stoic expression but who Alexander knew well enough to understand a discreet anxiety.

Olympias knows that look Alexander has in his eyes. She has seen it before when Alexander was little and saw a 'brand new, oh so shiny toy that he simply must have', and he was displaying it to that toy boy of all things.

Both men noticed how her anger grew at each passing second, enough that Alexander blurted out, "I hope not, otherwise he's failing miserably." The woman didn't seem convinced. "But tell me, how's your new pupil?"

Olympias earned a look of exasperation that was rare of her, speaking with pure frustration, "The boy can barely stand the sight of Ephari, my youngest. He's only useful as a sacrifice."

The men fought back the urge to sigh in relief, their bodies releasing the muscles they didn't even know were tense. "Given the time he'll learn."

The rest of the meal did not have the same life-threatening episodes as Olympias was distracted by her ingenious son who gave a different turn to the conversation whenever he found a shaky subject. When they left the room, Hephaestion did not comment on the apparent betrayal since it was likely that his head would not still be attached to his body if the conversation had not been interrupted by Alexander's antics. He was pleased enough to forgive the prince but not enough to thank him.

They spent the day getting along quietly, mostly due to the presence of witnesses. After the morning meal they stopped by Leonidas' training grounds to have their daily dose of homicidal exercises and then went back to the palace for lunch, this time without the pleasant company of the queen. During the afternoon they visited the army's training grounds as Parmenion walked Alexander through some exhausting diplomatic issues that, for some reason, seamed the most interesting subject ever when those two were discussing it. They returned to the palace for a late afternoon ride with the prince's friends who were getting used to Hephaestion's presence, even if his name still ran chills down their spines. Finally, the prince went to his father's banquet and his guard was allowed to return home and burry the memories of this dreadful day with a good night of sleep.

"Ow!" Of course this perfect plan had to be interrupted by his uncle, who weirdly enough looked liked a combination of good old Armyntor with hateful bastard Leonidas. The man shared the same hight as Hephaestion in his youth, but now his hunch stole him some of those inches he found so precious. His eyes were the same blue as Hephaestion's but slightly clouded by a deep grey; his skin was wrinkled and his hair was lacking on the top of his head, but still grew strong on his chin, filling his long beard. He was Armyntor's older brother and some say that the fact that his wife was never able to bear him children made him an old bitter man. Hephaestion knew for a fact that his uncle had been like this his whole life.

This hybrid with way to much strength for his age had just slammed his cane against his nephew's pillow and dangerously close to said nephew's face. "What was that for?" Hephaestion asked, after leaping from his bed and carefully creating a safe distance from his uncle.

"Why are you laying there being useless?" The man said with a cold gaze, his cane pointing at Hephaestion accusingly. The younger man smiled slyly, crossing his legs for a comfortable position on the middle of his bed.

"Don't you pity the person who just had to spend the last hours with a spoiled brat and a narcissistic sadist?"

"No." Hephaestion frowned at his uncle who in return raised his eyebrows in synchrony to underline his mock surprise.

"Oh, you were talking about yourself? The answer is still no, I'm afraid." Hephaestion threw him a pillow, laughing as he said,

"It's immoral to hate your own nephew."

"It's immoral to punch the goddamn brat that's going to lead an army in no time." The old man threw the pillow back, a concerned look taking over his cold expression. "You're lucky you're alive."

Hephaestion shrugged and hugged the pillow against his chest. "I thought so too, now I'm not so certain." He paused for dramatic effect. "I feel like I'm dying." Then he threw himself back on the bed to prove his point, only to anger his uncle further.

"I have no interest in your philosophical viewings of your own life. Talk to your aunt if you want pity." Hephaestion just lay there, not moving a muscle. The older man raised his cane and poked him, first on his stomach, then on his cheek.

"Don't you dare die on me. Those horses won't feed themselves, you know?" Hephaestion distanced the cane from his face with one hand and rose from the bed by supporting himself with the other, laughing as he did so. Then he put an arm over his uncle's shoulders and dragged him away as the smaller man fought to release himself; the old man really hated displays of affection.

_To be continued..._

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So... this is kind of awkward for me seeing as I kind of blackmailed you last time... sorry for that, by the way. Must be a PMS thing.

Anyway, it worked out, right? You gave me what I want, I gave you what you want. We're like a big, happy mob family. :D

Thank you so much for all the reviews. I loved your opinions, ideas and suggestions and I will try to follow the advices you gave me. (: I will reply to all reviews but probably not today since I'm off to a dinner party (very much against my will). Cya beautiful people! :D


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